Murder Mystery- Nirbhaya Gang Rape & Murder Case

Nirbhaya Gang Rape & Murder Case

Jyoti Singh or an internet and media driven name NIRBHAYA, a 23-year old physiotherapy intern was brutally beaten, assaulted, tortured, and gang-raped on 16^th December 2012 in a moving bus in south Delhi. She was traveling with Awindra Pratap Pandey, who is one of her friends. 

Context

Jyoti Singh also known as NIRBHAYA was a 23-year old medical student who was the then physiotherapy intern in Delhi. One day, Jyoti and her friend, Awindra were traveling back to their home on the night after watching a movie. It was on 16^th December 2012, they boarded an off-duty charter bus from Munirka Bus Stand. In the bus, there were 6 other men, already traveling which included the bus driver too. The specification of the bus having yellow and green stripes and “YADAV” written on it derived that it was bound for Dwarka-Palam Road. Suspiciously it was noticed by Jyoti and Awindra that the bus was mobile in a remote direction and one of the 6 men happened to shut the doors of the bus. Awindra objected for the same and since the men was drunk; he shouted him down and broke out a fight. Soon the drunken men start molesting and assaulting Jyoti. Awindra was knocked down with an iron rod and the men trailed Jyoti to the back seat of the bus and gang-raped her for almost an hour.

Facts related to the case

Jyoti was a young woman who was ruthlessly sexually assaulted and gang-raped by 6 men in a moving bus. Jyoti was defending herself, only then one of them, a juvenile, inserted an iron rod in the private part of her while tearing and ripping off her intestines. All this happened when the bus driver drove all-over Delhi. Later, both Jyoti and Awindra were thrown out of the bus on the side of a road to die. There was a lot of blood loss, both of them almost half-dead was noticed was a passerby who then informed about the same to the Delhi Police.

Immediate actions were taken by the police and they were sent to Safdarjung hospital. The doctors were called for the emergency treatment of Jyoti since she was brutally assaulted. The doctors later found that she was left with only 5% of her intestine inside her body. Jyoti was only able to survive for few days after she was shifted to Mt. Elizabeth hospital, Singapore where she took her last painful breath on 29 December 2012.

Evidences which lead to victim’s death

1. Iron rod which was inserted in the private part of the victim lead to 95% damage of her intestine.

2. 6 men gang- raped her for an hour that led to multiple body organ damage, contusions, abrasions and various external injuries in her body.

3. The cause of death of the victim was declared to be due to sepsis with multiple organ failure which is accompanied by multiple injuries.

4. The dying declaration of the victim stated for the justice she seeks against the 6 men namely; Akshay Thakur, Ram Singh, Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta, and the Juvenile.

Police Investigation

 A thorough search was launched by the Delhi Police against all the 6 wanted men in the NIRBHAYA case. Each of the 6 men was found and was readily taken into police custody. All the 6 men including the juvenile were convicted for their crime by the court.

Ram Singh, the bus driver was brought to the Tihar jail. On 11^th march 2013, Ram committed suicide in Tihar jail during the trial.

On September 2013, the trial court pronounced capital punishment for Akshay, Mukesh, Vinay and Pawan. 3 convicts excluding Akshay sought the review of the judgement privilege which was dismissed. Later Akshay’s review petition order was also dismissed on 18^th December 2019 by the supreme court.

The Juvenile was tried autonomously in a juvenile court and was sentenced 3 years of imprisonment in a reform facility.

Verdict

All the 4 convicts were sentenced a death penalty for the gang rape and murder of the victim. They were declared to be hanged on 3^rd March 2020 at 6 AM. This happened to be the 3^rd death warrant issued against them by the court. The first two warrants were to be dismissed as the convicts took to use every legal option available for them to be used. The Tihar jail authorities then informed the court about the exhaustion of the legal options of 3 out of 4 convicts before the issue of the 3^rd death warrant. Lastly, Akshay Thakur, left with a legal option, filed a Mercy plea or curative petition to the president which was dismissed too.

On 19^th March 2020, the Supreme Court approved the Delhi high courts sentence verdict on the 4 convicts of the NIRBHAYA case stated that it is a “ rarest of the rare” crime. It so deeply shook the conscience of the nation that the Supreme Court rejected 4 Mercy pleas of the 4 convicts and upheld the death sentence for all the 4 convicts to be executed on 20^th March 2020 at 6 AM.

On 20^th march 2020 the convicts were hanged at 5:30 AM and thus the justice demanded by Jyoti was served by the criminal justice system of India.