December 16 gangrape case: No change in lawyers

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the plea of the four convicts in the Dec. 16 rape and murder case for changing the two senior lawyers Raju Ramachandran and Sanjay Hedge appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court. A three-judge bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra, Ms. R. Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan said their appointment will continue but they cannot represent the appellants in any manner. Though arguments were to continue from 2 pm to 6 pm, it concluded at 5.15 pm to be continued on Friday.

The 23-year-old paramedic was brutally gang raped on the night of December 16, 2012 by six persons in a moving bus in south Delhi and thrown out of the vehicle with her male friend. She later died in a Singapore hospital on December 29, 2012. The prime accused in the case Ram Singh was found dead in Tihar Jail and the trial against him was abated. The sixth accused, the juvenile, came out in December last after serving out his three year sentence.