While the whole country is waiting for the justice to be delivered to the Nirbhaya’s parents, whose daughter was brutally gang-raped on a moving bus in Delhi, one of the convicts, Akshay Singh filed a review petition in the Supreme Court questioning the death penalty last week.
Nirbhaya’s case convict Akshay was the last one out of the four men convicted in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case, who did not file a review petition against the death penalty earlier. He filed his bizarre review petition in the Supreme Court, suggesting that the bad air and water in Delhi will anyways shorten his life and hence, why the death penalty?
As per NDTV, now the Supreme Court today rejected his plea and confirmed his death sentence in 2012 gang-rape, torture and killing of a young medical student known to the world as ‘Nirbhaya’ or fearless. The court also mentioned that there was no ground to review the verdict. And, convict Akshay Singh can plead for mercy before the President of India within one week.
“Review petition is not re-hearing of appeal over and over again” a three-judge bench said, dismissing the last such petition in the case.
Akshay Singh’s lawyer AP Singh had argued that there was media and public pressure to implicate him. He also argued that the dying declaration of Nirbhaya was “doubtful and cannot be relied upon”, pointing to a recent book by a former Tihar jailer, which raises questions about the suicide of Ram Singh, one of the accused, inside the jail.
On this Supreme Court said:
“We can’t go by views of any author. We can’t go into all this now. This will set a dangerous trend if people start writing books after the trial is over and talk about such things. There will be no end if we start entertaining all these arguments now. He should have offered himself at the time of trial. What can be the purpose of writing all this now? How can we reply on it,”
Also Read: Asha Devi’s Inspiring Journey From Being A Faceless Voice To The Mother Of Nirbhaya
Representing the state, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said:
“The convict doesn’t deserve any lenience. God would feel ashamed of creating such a monster. There are certain crimes where ‘humanity cries’ and this case is one of them.”
The review petitions of the three other convicts, Mukesh, 30, Pawan Gupta, 23, and Vinay Sharma, 24, had been dismissed earlier. Of the six accused of Nirbhaya’s rape and murder, four were convicted, Ram Singh committed suicide and a juvenile was released after three years in a reform home.
On the Supreme court verdict, I am very happy: Nirbhaya’s mother lauds SC verdict
Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi said she is very happy with the Supreme Court’s order. She also shared that she was confident all four convicts would be hanged soon. On the court decision, she said
“It is good and we have gone a step further.”
And, now the whole nation would be tracking Patiala House Court where Nirbhaya’s parents have filed a petition to expedite the death sentence given to the four convicts.
The whole country is waiting for the justice to be soon delivered to Nirbhaya, who was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012, before being dumped on a road – naked and critically injured. She died on December 29.
