Nirbhaya case: SC rejects Akshay Kumar Singh's death sentence review petition

The Supreme Court bench comprising Justice R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna heard the review petition of Nirbhaya rape murder case convict Akshay Kumar Singh on Wednesday. The top court dismissed Singh’s petition and upheld the earlier judgement that handed him death penalty.

Justice Banumathi, reading the judgement, stated, “Considering submissions, petitioner tried to sought to assail evidence ...these grounds earlier considered and rejected. We have given due consideration to grounds. Petitioner has sought to assail evidence. These grounds were considered earlier. This cannot be allowed. All these have been examined in trial court, High Court and SC.”

Akshay’s lawyer, AP Singh, sought stay of implementation stating that he wanted two weeks to draft curative plea. The apex court responded stating, “Why should we give time?” adding “Petitioner sought to assail facts yet again, which can't be done at this stage.”

Convicts lawyer was handed 30 minutes on Wednesday to put forth his case and the SC bench then dicided on the argument presented to them. He stated that there was no proof against his client and tried to get a reversal in the death penalty. He also stated that the probe carried out in the Nirbhaya case was contentious. The bench then stated that factual argument couldn’t be made at this stage.

The convict’s lawyer also stated that Delhi government was for the execution and everything was a agenda. The air polution arugument was put forth to the court yet again where the convict’s lawyer stated that since the air in Delhi was toxic, there was no need to hang the convict.

The new bench was composed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde on Tuesday after he rescued himself from the hearing.

Akshay’s outlandish plea had made headlines and is seen as another ploy to delay his death sentence . In his plea, Akshay had claimed that since the air quality in Delhi was very toxic and breathing in it was equal to breathing poison, there was no need to execute the death sentence as he would die of pollution anyway.