Nirbhaya gang-rape: Apex court upholds death penalty, rejects convict's review plea

The Supreme Court, on Wednesday (December 18), rejected the review petition of Nirbhaya gang-rape convict Akshay Thakur seeking to revoke his death penalty, on the ground that there is no merit in the plea.

This, effectively, means the next option before him is to file a curative plea.

The court also heard the petition of Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi, who had challenged Akshay’s review petition, on December 13.

While a three-judge bench of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhusan was slated to hear the review petition on Tuesday (December 17), Justice Bobde recused himself from hearing the appeal.

The CJI said that one of his relatives had earlier approached the court on behalf of the victim’s mother and therefore it would be appropriate for some other bench to hear the review plea.

Four convicts Pawan Gupta, Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh are on death row for the brutal gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic inside a bus in New Delhi in 2012. While six people were involved in the rape and murder, one of them, a juvenile, despite being convicted of rape and murder was given a maximum sentence of three years’ imprisonment in a reform facility, while another named Ram Singh allegedly committed suicide in jail before the trial ended.

On May 5 2017, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence awarded by the Delhi High Court to the four remaining convicts in the case.

Akshay was the only one of the four convicts who hadn’t filed a review petition challenging the death penalty.

The case comes in the backdrop of speculations of hanging preparations underway for the four convicts at Tihar Jail. While Pawan Gupta was recently shifted to Tihar Jail from Mandoli Jail, jail authorities have ordered special ropes from Bihar’s Buxar Jail. The authorities have also written to other states, seeking services of hangmen.