Delhi HC to start hearing gang-rapists’ appeal today

Agencies/New DelhiFour men condemned to death for the murder and gang-rape of a student were yesterday brought back to court as their lawyers confirmed before judges that they would appeal the sentences. The convicts were produced before the Delhi High Court where a panel of two judges said they would take up the case from today, the lawyer for one of the men said. “The court will start hearing the background to the case from tomorrow. We will file our appeal shortly,” said Vivek Sharma, the counsel for Pawan Gupta. “We are keeping our fingers crossed,” Sharma added. The lawyers for the other three convicts - Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh - told the court that they would also appeal the sentencing. Judges Reva Khetrapal and Pratibha Rani said the death reference in the case will be heard on daily basis from today.The court also rejected the request of defence counsels seeking a week’s adjournment.“We can start hearing death reference and in the meanwhile you (defence counsels) file appeal in the case. We don’t know why you don’t want to open the case. Let us start from hearing the background of the case, and state will start the case, then from next week, you can start,” the judges said.Rejecting the contentions of the defence lawyers for adjournment, the court said: “It will be in your interest if the appeal comes early, otherwise sword will be hanging on their (convicts) head. Since this matter was going on day-to-day basis in the fast-track court, we should hear it fast.”The lawyers had earlier indicated to reporters their intention to appeal but this was the first time that they had confirmed their move in court. A trial court sentenced the men on September 13 over the gang-rape on a bus in Delhi of the 23-year-old woman, who died nearly a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital. The court said that the crime fell into the “rarest of rare category” that justified capital punishment. Under the law the trial court has to refer each death penalty case to the high court for confirmation of the punishment.Outside and inside the courtroom, lawyers, court staff and common people gathered to catch a glimpse of the four convicts. When they were brought outside the courtroom after the hearing, a crowd of women lawyers gathered outside spat on them.There had been a huge clamour for the gang to be executed for their attack on December 16, which shocked the nation and triggered a debate on the way women are treated. The convicts are currently being held at the capital’s high-security Tihar Jail. They were pictured dressed in casual clothes as they entered the court premises escorted by scores of policemen. The fifth suspect in the case, bus driver Ram Singh, died in prison in March in an apparent suicide. A sixth member of the gang, who was a minor at the time of the assault, was sentenced last month to three years in a reformatory, the maximum penalty allowed under India’s juvenile laws. India had an unofficial eight-year moratorium on capital punishment until last November when the Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks, was executed. l A woman from West Bengal was allegedly gang-raped by five men in Bihar’s Patna district, police said yesterday.The victim, a resident of Bolrampur village in neighbouring West Bengal, was found lying unconscious by a roadside, with several injuries on her, by a team of National Disaster Response Force late Monday in Bihta, about 30km from Patna, a police official said.Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj said the Bengali speaking woman in her early 30s was gang-raped.“Gang-rape was confirmed by her medical examination at a local hospital,” he said.She was admitted to a government hospital. “With the help of a mason, who was working near the hospital, she informed the police that four-five people gang-raped her,” the police said.