Supreme Court: Akshay Kumar Singh, one of the convicts in the brutal December 16, 2012, Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, has filed a review petition seeking modification and leniency.
Singh was sentenced to death by a trial court on September 13, 2013, for raping and murdering the 23-year-old woman physiotherapist on the chilling cold night of December 16, 2012, in the national capital. His sentence was upheld by the Delhi High Court and finally by the Supreme Court.
The convict — Akshay — in his review petition pleaded and requested the Supreme Court to consider his prayer and review its earlier judgement of May 5, 2017, in which the Court sentenced him to the gallows. Akshay’s lawyer, Dr. AP Singh said,
“We are requesting the apex court to conduct the review petition hearing in an open court,”
The Court had on May 5, 2017, upheld the death sentence of all the four convicts in the brutal December 16 gangrape and murder case. The Court, while dismissing the appeal of the four convicts, had said that the crime fell in the rarest of rare category and “shaken the conscience of the society.” Writing down a 429 page long judgment, the 3-judge bench of Dipak Misra, R. Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan, JJ had noticed that attacking the deceased by forcibly disrobing her and committing violent sexual assault by all the appellants; and insertion of rod in her private parts that, inter alia, caused perforation of her intestine which caused sepsis and, ultimately, led to her death, shows that the accused persons had found an object for enjoyment in her and, as is evident, they were obsessed with the singular purpose sans any feeling to ravish her as they liked, treat her as they felt and the gross sadistic and beastly instinctual pleasures came to the forefront when they, after ravishing her, thought it to be just a matter of routine to throw her alongwith her friend out of the bus and crush them. The Court said that the casual manner with which she was treated and the devilish manner in which they played with her identity and dignity is humanly inconceivable.
The Court had also rejected the review petition on July 9, 2018.
(With inputs from ANI)