December 16 rape case final arguments on

New Delhi: Final arguments began on Monday in the Supreme Court in the appeals filed by four accused in the December 16 gang rape case seeking to quash the Delhi high Court verdict confirming the death sentence awarded to them for the December 16, 2012 incident in the capital. The convicts Vinay Sharma (21) and Akshay Thakur (29), Mukesh (27) and Pawan Gupta (20) were awarded death sentence and the apex court had stayed their execution.

The Delhi high court had upheld their conviction and award of death penalty by terming the offence as “extremely fiendish” and “unparalleled in the history of criminal jurisprudence” and said the “exemplary punishment” was the need of the hour.

Counsel M.L. Sharma traced the genesis of the case before a three-judge bench and pleaded for setting aside the HC verdict. He argued that there was no “substance or material piece of evidence” and there were contradictions in the depositions of the victim and her friend, who had accompanied her in the bus, about the offence.