Nirbhaya Convict Review Plea: Supreme Court rejects plea

The Supreme Court resumed hearing a review plea filed by Akshay Kumar Singh, one of the four men convicted in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, on Wednesday. It rejected the convict Akshay Kumar's plea. The hearing on Singh's review plea was delayed by a day on Tuesday when Chief Justice of India SA Bobde recused himself from hearing the review plea. CJI SA Bobde recused himself from the case because his nephew had represented Nirbhaya in a court earlier. Both sides got thirty minutes to argue their case.

When the lawyer on Akshay's behalf raised the argument of the Tihar jailer's book in which he wrote about convict Ram Singh's suicide and the mystery behind it, the Supreme Court said it was too late to present this kind of evidence now. It added that books that were written back in the day must not be taken into account as it would set a dangerous trend, without presenting themselves in court.

A detailed hearing was held in open court on Akshay Kumar Singh's review petition. In its judgment in the case, the Supreme Court had said that the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder fell in the "rarest of rare" category while awarding death sentence to all the convicts in 2018. All the four convicts have filed review pleas, of which Akshay Kumar's was the last one. The three others' pleas were rejected by the court.

Speaking about justice, the victim' mother said she has waited for seven long years, and she can't wait any longer for justice to be served to her daughter's perpetrators. "Like we have waited for 7 years, we will wait for one more day. Hopefully the review petition will be rejected tomorrow and they will be hanged soon," she was quotes saying.

Meanwhile, Akshay Kumar -- the fourth convict -- moved the Supreme Court seeking a review of the 2017 order that had upheld his conviction and death sentence. That plea has been heard today by the SC after a day's delay. In one statement, Kumar's plea states that "Delhi pollution is already killing us, why give a death penalty?" AP Singh - the lawyer contesting for the convict said the investigations that were made were done in a wrongful manner.

All the four men are currently imprisoned at the Tihar jail in Delhi where preparations reportedly underway for the four's hangings. Officials have stated that they are being put in close watch, as they seem to be depressed.