A city court on Wednesday awarded 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment to four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape case of December 16, 2012, for robbery. The convicts have also been slapped with a fine of `1.01 lakh each.
Additional public prosecutor Jitendra Sharma said, “The convicts are desperate people who had gone out that evening with the intention to lure unsuspecting and innocent passengers to loot them.”
He added, “The offences are extremely grave when viewed from the perspective of a common citizen standing on a bus stop, waiting for transportation. Such offences
shake the confidence of people on public transportation.”
Pawan, Mukesh, Vinay, and Akshay, before brutally raping Nirbhaya, had robbed one Ram Adhar at Khanpur while he was trying to board a bus.
They took away his mobile phone and money after beating him and tearing his clothes. They then threw him out of the moving bus at the IIT flyover.
Such an act on the part of the convicts has taken away the confidence with which Ram Adhar boarded the said bus, the court said.
The four convicts have been sentenced under Section 395 (Punishment for dacoity), Section 394 (causing grievous hurt in committing robbery), Section 365 (kidnapping), Section 342 (Punishment for wrongful confinement) Section 412 (dishonestly receiving property stolen in the commission of a dacoity) of the Indian Penal Code.
In the meanwhile, the Defence counsel AP Singh has also filed an application to transfer Vinay Singh to some other jail, who is currently in Tihar jail. The counsel said that Vinay is the next target after Ram Singh, who had allegedly committed suicide in the jail campus.
The four convicts, Ram Singh (deceased) along with a juvenile raped a 23-year-old physiotherapist on the night of December 16 2012 after robbing Ram Adhar.
All the four were sentenced to death in the gangrape case by a trial court, which was confirmed by the Delhi High Court. The matter is now pending in the Supreme Court.