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A new Supreme Court bench headed by Justice R Banumathi on Wednesday, 18 December, dismissed the review petition filed by death row convict Akshay Kumar Singh in the Nirbhaya case.
The SC bench said that Singh still has the option of filing a mercy petition before the President of India within a week.
The convict's lawyer AP Singh, said that capital punishment should be abolished in India and that the use of death penalty did not seem to be a deterrent for criminals and convicts.
More updates on the story here.
He added that the decision of the Supreme Court in 2017 confirming his conviction and death sentence should be reviewed as new facts about the case had come to light.
The bench, however, said that the petitioner could not assail the facts yet again at this stage, and dismissed his petition.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed the review petition on behalf of the Delhi government. He pointed out that the arguments by Singh had already been raised before.
A CJI-led Supreme Court bench on Tuesday, had adjourned the hearing of a review plea filed by Singh, after CJI SA Bobde recused himself from the case. The matter was adjourned to 10:30 am on Wednesday and a new bench constituted to hear the review plea.
According to LiveLaw, the CJI's nephew Arjun Bobde had appeared for Nirbhaya’s family in the earlier proceedings.
Singh had moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday, 10 December, seeking review of its 2017 judgment handing out death penalty to all of them in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, PTI reported.
Singh had reportedly not filed the review plea earlier with other three convicts. In his review petition filed on Tuesday, he fervently pleaded against his possible execution.
"The state must not simply execute people to prove that it is attacking terror or violence against women. It must persistently work towards systematic reforms to being about change. Executions only kill the criminal, not the crime...," the review plea said, according to PTI.
ANI reported that a three-judge bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde, Justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan would be hearing the plea at 2 pm on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court had on 9 July last year dismissed the review pleas filed by the three convicts – Mukesh, Pawan and Vinay – saying no grounds had been made out by them for review of the 2017 verdict.
The apex court in its 2017 verdict had upheld capital punishment awarded to them by the Delhi High Court and the trial court in the case, PTI reported.
‘Believe We Will Get Justice’: Asha Devi
Following the dismissal of the review petition, Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi said that she was very happy.
Speaking to ANI on Tuesday, 17 December, Nirbhaya’s mother, Asha Devi had said that she believed they would get justice.
“We believe we will get justice because we have no other option. If Kuldeep Sengar and Nirbhaya's four culprits get capital punishment, it will send a strong message to the society,” she had said, according to ANI.
Devi was referring to Delhi’s Tiz Hazari convicting ex-BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar in the Unnao rape case on Monday.
Six people were convicted for brutally raping and murdering a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus while she was on her way back home on 16 December 2012. She died from her injuries but the brutal gang-rape sparked a nationwide fury that led to a new legislation to deal with such heinous crimes.
Of the six people convicted in the case, one was a minor, who was sent to a rehabilitation centre, and another, Ram Singh, took his own life in Tihar Jail.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI.)
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