SC Dismisses Curative plea of death row convict in Nirbhaya Case
By: – Syed Ali Taher Abedi
New Delhi Jan 30. The Apex Court on Thursday dismissed the curative petition of Akshay Thakur, one of the 2012 Gang rape and murder convicts, who sought commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment.
The verdict was passed by a five-judge bench headed by Justice NV Ramana, Jaustice Arun Mishra, Justice Rohinton Nariman,Justice R. Bhanumathi and Justice Ashok Nhushan, which took up the matter this afternoon. “The application for stay of execution of death sentence is also rejected.” The bench said.
On Dec 16,2012, six men in Delhi had brutally gang-raped a young woman, later named “NIRBHAYA”, in a moving bus, the victim succumbed to her injuries two weeks later in a hospital in Singapore. The six accused were apprehended by the police.
During the trial of the case the main accused Ram Singh had allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail.
The petition cited the “Collective conscience of the society” and public opinion as having prejudiced the case of the petitioner and other co-accused. “The present curative petition is also field in recognition of the increasingly unsustainable judicial demand for the death penalty in the light of the severely inconsistent application of its imposition by this court. The petition further said.
In July 2018, the Supreme Court dismissed review petitions filed by three of the accused i.e Mukesh, Vinay and Pavan. The fourth convict, Akshay’s review petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court in December last year.
The four convicts are scheduled to be executed on February 1at 6:00AM.
[Read the Order]
