Nirbhaya Gang Rape Case - Mukesh & Anr vs State for NCT of Delhi - Supreme Court

 Nirbhaya Gang Rape Case - Mukesh & Anr vs State for NCT of Delhi - Supreme Court Important Judgment 2017 - 

 

On 5th May, 2017, in the case of Mukesh & Anr v. State for NCT of Delhi & Ors. [Criminal Appeal Nos.607-608 of 2017], the prosecutrix had been brutally gang-raped in a moving bus in front of her helpless male friend (PW1) who was also assaulted. The prosecutrix was subjected to unnatural sex and her private parts and internal organs were also seriously injured by inserting iron rod and hand in the rectal and vaginal region. The prosecutrix and PW1 were thereafter thrown out of the moving bus by the side of the road. After examining the nature of the crime which ultimately led to the death of the prosecutrix and manner in which it was committed, a three Judge Bench of the Supreme Court confirmed the death penalty imposed upon the accused-appellants by the lower Courts. 


In a common judgment delivered by two Hon’ble Judges, it was held that the brutal, barbaric and diabolic nature of the crime was “evincible from the acts committed by the accused persons, viz., the assault on the informant, PW-1 with iron rod and tearing off his clothes; assaulting the informant and the deceased with hands, kicks and iron rod and robbing them of their personal belongings like debit cards, ring, informant’s shoes, etc.; attacking the deceased by forcibly disrobing her and committing violent sexual assault by all the appellants; their brutish behaviour in having anal sex with the deceased and forcing her to perform oral sex; injuries on the body of the deceased by way of bite marks (10 in number); and insertion of rod in her private parts that, inter alia, caused perforation of her intestine which caused sepsis and, ultimately, led to her death. The medical history of the prosecutrix (as proved in the record in Ex. PW-50/A and Ex. PW-50) demonstrates that the entire intestine of the prosecutrix was perforated and splayed open due to the repeated insertion of the rod and hands; and the appellants had pulled out the internal organs of the prosecutrix in the most savage and inhuman manner that caused grave injuries which ultimately annihilated her life. As has been established, the prosecutrix sustained various bite marks which were observed on her face, lips, jaws, near ear, on the right and left breast, left upper arm, right lower limb, right inner groin, right lower thigh, left thigh lateral, left lower anterior and genitals. These acts itself demonstrate the mental perversion and inconceivable brutality as caused by the appellants. As further proven, they threw the informant and the deceased victim on the road in a cold winter night. After throwing the informant and the deceased victim, the convicts tried to run the bus over them so that there would be no evidence against them. They made all possible efforts in destroying the evidence by, inter alia, washing the bus and burning the clothes of the deceased and after performing the gruesome act, they divided the loot among themselves.”


In the said common judgment, it was observed that it was “absolutely obvious that the accused persons had found an object for enjoyment in her and, as is evident, they were obsessed with the singular purpose sans any feeling to ravish her as they liked, treat her as they felt” and, that “the gross sadistic and beastly instinctual pleasures came to the forefront when they, after ravishing her, thought it to be just a matter of routine to throw her alongwith her friend out of the bus and crush them. The casual manner with which she was treated and the devilish manner in which they played with her identity and dignity is humanly inconceivable. It sounds like a story from a different world where humanity has been treated with irreverence. The appetite for sex, the hunger for violence, the position of the empowered and the attitude of perversity, to say the least, are bound to shock the collective conscience which knows not what to do. It is manifest that the wanton lust, the servility to absolutely unchained carnal desire and slavery to the loathsome beastility of passion ruled the mindset of the appellants to commit a crime which can summon with immediacy “tsunami” of shock in the mind of the collective and destroy the civilised marrows of the milieu in entirety.” Arriving at the singular conclusion that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances brought on record, the Hon’ble Judge held that the High Court had “correctly confirmed the death penalty”. 


In a separate but concurring judgment, the third Hon’ble Judge too affirmed the death sentence awarded to the accused persons observing that “the gruesome offences were committed with highest viciousness. Human lust was allowed to take such a demonic form. The accused may not be hardened criminals; but the cruel manner in which the gang-rape was committed in the moving bus; iron rods were inserted in the private parts of the victim; and the coldness with which both the victims were thrown naked in cold wintery night of December, shocks the collective conscience of the society. The present case clearly comes within the category of ‘rarest of rare case’ where the question of any other punishment is ‘unquestionably foreclosed’. If at all there is a case warranting award of death sentence, it is the present case. If the dreadfulness displayed by the accused in committing the gang-rape, unnatural sex, insertion of iron rod in the private parts of the victim does not fall in the ‘rarest of rare category’, then one may wonder what else would fall in that category.”

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