New Delhi, Dec 18: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected review petition filed by Akshay Kumar Singh, one of the four men convicted in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice R Banumathi said there are no grounds to review the verdict and the contentions raised by convict Akshay Kumar Singh were already considered by the top court in the main judgement.
The bench said that review petition is not "re-hearing of appeal over and over again" and the top court had already considered the mitigating and aggravating circumstances while upholding the death penalty to the convict in the 2017 verdict.
The apex court said that it found "no error" on the face of the main judgement requiring any review. As soon as the bench pronounced the verdict, advocate A P Singh, appearing for convict Akshay, sought three weeks time to file mercy petition before the President.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi government, told the bench that one week time is prescribed under the law for filing mercy petition. "We are not expressing our view in this regard. If as per the law any time is available to the petitioner, it is for the petitioner to avail the remedy of filing mercy petition within that stipulated time," the bench said.
While pronouncing the judgement, the bench said the convict has again sought to assail the prosecution case and the findings of courts on it and this cannot be permitted. The bench said that the grounds raised by Akshay were almost identical to the grounds taken by the other three convicts in the case whose review pleas were rejected by the top court last year.
Regarding Singh's submission about the alleged flaws in the investigation, the bench said, "All these things have already been well considered by the trial court, High Court and the Supreme Court."
"I am very happy," Nirbhaya's mother, Asha Devi, told ANI after the verdict was pronounced by the three-judge bench of the apex court.
Akshay had moved the top court seeking clemency on the ground that the "rising pollution" has already increased the mortality rates. He sought commutation of the death penalty awarded to him and four others.
Besides Akshay, three other convicts, Mukesh, Akshay and Pawan are facing the gallows for rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012. The girl, who was later named Nirbhaya, died of injuries a few days later.
Two more people, including prime accused Ram Singh, were also accused of committing the crime. Singh, however, committed suicide in the Tihar jail during the trial of the case. Another accused was a minor at the time of the commission of the crime and was sent to a reform facility.
In 2013, a fast-track court had held the four condemned men guilty in the case. Their conviction was also upheld by the Delhi High Court and Supreme Court later.
Akshay is only one of the four convicts who had not filed the review petition in the case. Mukesh, Pawan and Vinay had filed the review petition last year but it was rejected by the apex court. As a last resort, Vinay, filed a mercy petition last month, but later sought to withdraw it.
Meanwhile, a Delhi court is also slated to hear a petition seeking issuance of death warrants against the four convicts today at 2 pm.
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