Three months after a Delhi fast-track court awarded the death penalty to four convicts in the December 16 gang rape-cum-murder case, their fate still hangs in balance as the Delhi high court is yet to take a final call on their appeals.
A bench of justice Reva Khetrapal and justice Pratibha Rani has been conducting a day-to-day hearing on the appeals of the four convicts as also the death reference sent by the trial court.
Special public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan has already completed his arguments and has vehemently opposed the appeals filed by the convicts. “By giving the maximum sentence, the message to the society would be that deviant behaviour of extreme kind will not be tolerated,” Dayan Krishnan had told the bench.
On the other hand, the convicts’ advocates continue to adopt delaying tactics. They even went to the Supreme Court complaining that the HC was in a hurry to complete the hearing.
In most of the rape cases, trial takes years to complete. But the 16/12 gang rape case proved to be an exception as the trial was completed in less than nine months.
Will the appeals be similarly decided swiftly so that the victim’s family and millions of people outraged at the brutality of the crime have a sense of closure?
{{/usCountry}}Will the appeals be similarly decided swiftly so that the victim’s family and millions of people outraged at the brutality of the crime have a sense of closure?
{{/usCountry}}The verdict in the capital punishment case is likely to be give in January, 2014.