File photo of protests after the December 2012 Delhi gang-rape
A Delhi court has awarded 10-year jail terms to four people - earlier convicted for the brutal gang rape of Nirbhaya on December 16, 2012 - in a robbery case that occurred the same night.
Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh on August 27 convicted the four for robbery, kidnapping, wrongfully confining a person, voluntarily causing hurt in committing or attempting to commit robbery, dishonestly receiving stolen property knowing it was obtained by robbery and common intention under the Indian Penal Code.
The four gang-rape convicts - Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Mukesh and Pawan Gupta - were tried for beating up and robbing carpenter Ram Adhar, before they raped and brutally assaulted a 23-year-old physiotherapist in a moving bus in Delhi on December 16, 2012.
All four were sentenced to death in the gang rape case by a trial court, which was confirmed by the Delhi High Court. The matter is now pending in the Supreme Court.
The Delhi Police, in its charge sheet filed on March 15, 2013, in the robbery case, said bus driver Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh, Vinay, Pawan and Akshay, along with a juvenile, snatched Ram Adhar's mobile phone and Rs.1,500 after luring him into the bus.
Mukesh, Vinay, Pawan and Akshay were put on trial in this case in which charges were framed in July 2013. Charges against Ram Singh abated after his death in Tihar Jail in March 2013.