Nirbhaya gangrape case: Supreme Court to decide on convict's plea today; parents demand death penalty

The Supreme Court is scheduled to give its verdict on the Nirbhaya gangrapre case on Friday, May 5. The SC ruling on convicts' plea will decide whether the four perpetrators arrested for the crime will be sentenced to death, or given mercy.

Nearly five years ago, a 23-year-old medical student was brutally gangraped and tortured on a moving bus in Delhi, while she was on her way home after watching a movie with a friend. She later succumbed to her injuries in a hospital in Singapore, and was named Nirbhaya by the media for her courage.

A trial court in 2013 had ruled that all the convicts should be hanged to death and the high court had upheld the sentence, However, the four perpetrators - Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh - challenged the court's decision in the apex court.

The gangrape convicts appealed before the Supreme Court against the ruling of their death sentences.

Nirbhaya, who was gangraped by six men in a moving bus, was tortured with an iron rod, which pulled out her intestines. The crime was so heinous that several protests broke out in the country, with many marching in Delhi and clashing with the police. All of them demanded justice for Nirbhaya and safety for women in the country.

Nirbhaya's parents, who are still reeling under trauma, demand justice for their daughter and want the perpetrators to be hanged.

"These men should be hanged. There is no crime more barbaric than this....I'm certain about that," Nirbhaya's father said.

Out of the six convicts, Ram Singh, the driver of the bus, was found hanging in his cell in Tihar jail in March 2013, a few months before they were convicted. Reports state that another convict, Vinay Sharma, also reportedly attempted to commit suicide last August.

The sixth convict in the case, who was just months short of turning 18 years of age, walked out of a correction home in December 2015 after spending three years.