Delhi gang rape: SC to deliver verdict on convicts' plea
New Delhi, July 8 : The Supreme Court on Monday will pronounce its verdict on pleas filed by the three death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang rape case.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice R. Banumathi and Justice Ashok Bhushan would deliver the judgement at 2 p.m. on the review petitions of Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh.
The fourth accused, Akshay Thakur, has not filed a review petition yet.
The convicts' counsel pleaded that the police had implicated the "innocent" persons after failing to arrest the real culprits.
It was contended that the death penalty was not the solution as it was against the principle of non-violence. Further, the convicts were not habitual offenders with a criminal history.
The top court had, in its May 5, 2017 verdict, upheld the death sentences awarded to the four convicts by a trial court and confirmed by the Delhi High Court.
They were convicted for raping and assaulting a 23-year-old para-medical student inside a moving bus on December 16, 2012, which led to her death 13 days later in a Singapore hospital.
The rapists, six in all, had comitted the crime on the woman who had boarded the bus with her male friend to go home after watching a movie.
One of the accused, Ram Singh, committed suicide in Tihar Central Jail here.
The sixth, a minor, was sent to a correction home and has been released after serving his probation period.
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Mumbai family deaths: FDA finds no watermelon vendor in area to check for affected stock
Mumbai (PTI): The Food and Drug Administration team probing the cause of death of four members of a family in south Mumbai's JJ Marg area have not been able to zero in on any watermelon vendor in the vicinity to check if the fruit had a role to play in the ill-fated incident, an official said on Thursday.
The Dokadia family, residents of Ghari Mohalla on Ismail Kurte Road, had hosted a get-together of relatives on the night of April 25. At around 1 am, hours after the guests had left, Abdullah Dokadia (40), his wife Nasreen (35), and daughters Ayesha (16) and Zaineb (13) ate pieces of a watermelon.
They suffered severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea in the early hours of April 26 and were rushed to a local hospital before being referred to the government-run J J Hospital where all four died during treatment.
"The FDA team visited the house of Dokadia and collected samples of chicken pulao and watermelon pieces. After two days, the leftover chicken pulao had developed fungus growth. The team also tried to locate watermelon vendors to check for any affected lots," he said.
But no vendors were found in the area for the past two days, preventing the FDA team from getting samples, the official added.
The FDA has requested the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to share the report on the food samples collected by them, he added.
A senior Mumbai police official said the force is waiting for FSL reports in the case, adding that questions on presence of sedatives etc in the fruit could be answered only then.
The statements of the kin of the deceased are being recorded to ascertain if it is a case of mass suicide, and it is being checked if the Dokadia family were in debt or distressed over some issue, the police official said.
