The Supreme Court will hear the plea filed by the convicts in Nirbhaya Rape Case challenging the Delhi High Court’s decision of their death sentence.

The apex court had began final hearing of the convicts, Akshay, Vinay Sharma, Pawan and Mukesh, on April 4, almost two years after staying their execution.

Earlier, on September 23, the trial court had awarded them the death sentence and six months later, the Delhi HC upheld the decision by the trial court. The supreme court, in 2014, had stayed their execution after the convicts approached the apex court.

The woman, publicly known as Nirbhaya, was sexually assaulted by the convicts in moving bus in South Delhi and later the convicts threw out the woman and her male friend at an isolated spot.

On December 29, 2012, she died in the Singapore hospital, triggering the nationwide protests which led to the more aggressiveness to the laws related to rape and other forms of sexual harassment.

By Prajakt K