\'Why death penalty...\': Nirbhaya convict files review petition in SC
New Delhi: One of the four convicts, Akshay Kumar Singh, moved the Supreme Court Tuesday seeking review of its 2017 judgement handing down death penalty to all of them in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.
The apex court, on July 9, 2018, had dismissed the review pleas filed by three other convicts in the case. Akshay, 31, who had not filed the review plea earlier with other three convicts, has now moved the apex court with the petition, his lawyer A P Singh said.
In a 14-page Criminal Review Petition, filed by advocates on his behalf, Akshay Singh says: "Why death penalty when age is reducing... it is mentioned in our Ved, Purans and Upanishads that... people lived the life of thousand years... now it is Kalyug, in this era, age of human beings have reduced much. It has now come to 50-60 years... this is almost a true analysis... when a person faces stark realities of life, then he is no better than a dead body".
The petition goes on to say the air quality in the National Capital Region was "burst and like a gas chamber" and that the poor quality of drinking water - "full of poison". "Life is going short to short, then why death penalty?" the petition asked.
Finally, the petition quotes Mahatma Gandhi's famous advice to people faced with a difficult question - "Recall the face of the poorest and most helpless man...
The 23-year-old paramedic student was brutally gang raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in South Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road. She succumbed to injuries on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.
The top court had earlier dismissed the review pleas by Mukesh (30), Pawan Gupta (23) and Vinay Sharma (24), saying no grounds have been made out by them for review of the verdict.
The apex court in its 2017 verdict had upheld the capital punishment awarded to them by the Delhi High Court and the trial court in the case of gangrape and murder of the woman here.
One of the accused in the case, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail here A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board. He was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.
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