SC terms 'brutal' rape, murder of Nirbhaya as 'rarest of rare cases'

Terming it as a rarest of the rare cases, the Supreme Court on Friday said the December 16, 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape case was a crime that was brutal, barbaric and diabolic in nature.

The apex court said the case amounted to a devastation of social trust and completely destroyed the collective balance, inviting the indignation of society.

Recalling the immense torture that the victim had to go through, the top court said the acts itself demonstrated the mental perversion and inconceivable brutality of the convicted.

It also said the intention to run the bus over the victim after committing the heinous crime suggested that all possible efforts were made to destroy the evidence.

"The casual manner with which she was treated and the devilish manner in which they played with her identity and dignity is humanly inconceivable," the judgement read.

"It sounds like a story from a different world where humanity has been treated with irreverence," the judgement further read.

The court further said that 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 a "tsunami" of shock in the mind of the collective and destroy the civilised marrows of the milieu in entirety.

The court said that after 'consciously' weighing the aggravating circumstances and the mitigating factors, it concluded and held that the high court had correctly confirmed the death penalty and that it saw no reason to differ with the same.

Justice R. Banumathi also termed it as a 'case of barbaric sexual violence against women'.

In December, 2012, six people gang raped a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern in a moving bus.

After intensive care and treatment in ICU in Delhi, the victim was airlifted to a hospital in Singapore by an air ambulance where she succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012.

The incident shocked the nation and generated public rage.

A committee headed by Justice J.S. Verma, Former Chief Justice of India was constituted to suggest amendments to deal with sexual offences more sternly and effectively in future.

The suggestions of the committee led to the enactment of Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 which, inter alia, brought in substantive as well as procedural reforms in the core areas of rape law. The changes brought in, inter alia, can broadly be titled as under:-

• Extension of the definition of the offence of rape in Section 375 IPC.

• Adoption of a more pragmatic approach while dealing with the issue of consent in the offence of rape.

• Introduction of harsher penalty commensurating with the gravity of offence.