SC to hear Nirbhaya convict's review petition on death penalty today

The Supreme Court will hear the review petition of Akshay Kumar, a convict in the Nirbhaya case at 2 pm on Tuesday (December 17).

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, and Justices R. Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan will seek to review the 2017 judgement which awarded the convicts death penalty in the brutal rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in New Delhi in 2012.

Akshay Kumar, in his plea, had said that the death penalty entailed ‘cold-blooded killing’ and does not offer a chance to reform.

The bench would also hear the petition of Asha Devi, the mother of the rape victim who moved the Supreme Court opposing Akshay Kumar’s review petition on December 13.

She said, “we believe we will get justice because we have no other option. If Kuldeep Sengar (Unnao rape convict) & Nirbhaya’s four culprits get capital punishment, it will send a strong message to society.”

Also read: Third-generation UP hangman offers to execute Nirbhaya convicts

The apex court had dismissed the review petitions of the other three convicts – Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, and Vinay Sharma on July 9, 2018.

One of the convicts, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail and the sole  juvenile convict in the case was released from a reformation home after a three-year term.

December 16 marked the seventh anniversary of the gang-rape of the physiotherapy student on a private bus in 2012. Following life-threatening injuries to her vital organs, she was shifted to a Singapore hospital where she died on December 29, 2012.