Supreme Court termed it as a barbaric incident in its order. The top court upheld the death penalty, “taking the serious injuries, the severe nature of offence committed by the convicts.”
“Victim's dying declaration is consistent; it has been proved beyond doubt and corroborated. Nature and manner of the crime devastated social trust, falls in 'rarest of rare' category warranting death penalty,” stated the Supreme Court.
The Apex Court said aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating circumstances in the case and the offence created "tsunami of shock".
In 2012, six people lured a 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist and her male friend onto a bus in Delhi. The six culprits repeatedly raped the girl and beat both of them with a metal bar before dumping them on a road.
The girl died two weeks later of her injuries. Four of the convicts- Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh-were sentenced to death while the fifth hanged, Ram Singh, himself in
The sixth one was released after three years of jail for being a juvenile.
The four convicts had appealed to the top court to consider their death sentence.