Very happy says Nirbhaya’s mother as SC rejects killer’s review plea

New Delhi, Dec 18: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the plea filed by one of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, seeking review of its 2017 judgement upholding his death penalty. A three-judge bench headed by Justice R Banumathi said there are no ground to review the 2017 verdict and the contentions raised by convict Akshay Kumar Singh were already considered by the top court in the main judgement.

Welcoming the verdict, Nirbhaya's mother said,"I am very happy with this. We have a hearing in Patiala House court regarding the issuance of death warrant to the accused and we hope it will be in our favour," she said.

Delhi Commission For Women chief Swati Maliwal said,"After 7 years, the time is nearing for justice to be done with Nirbhaya. The review petition of the rapist has been rejected from the Supreme Court. Hope now Patiala House Court will immediately issue the death warrant of all the four killers! Those four murderers should be hanged immediately!" she posted on Twitter.

The bench also comprising justices Ashok Bhushan and A S Bopanna, 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 the mercy petition.

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."