The Supreme Court today confirmed the death sentence of one of the four convicts of the 2012 gangrape and torture of a young medical student who came to be known as Nirbhaya. The brutality of the crime had led to outrage and protests across the country.
A new bench heard the review petition after Chief Justice of India SA Bobde had recused himself from the case saying one of his relatives was representing Nirbhaya.
The review petitions of three other convicts – Mukesh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma – had been dismissed earlier. Of the six accused, four were convicted, and Ram Singh had committed suicide inside the jail, and a juvenile was released after three years in a reform home.
The 23-year-old student had been brutally assaulted in a moving bus in Delhi on December 16, 2012 and dumped on the road. She died 13 days later, in Singapore, where she had been taken by the government for treatment.
In the review petition, the convict had questioned the woman’s dying declaration and said in court that he deserved mercy and there had been inefficiency in catching the “real perpetrators”. However, this was countered by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.
The convict’s lawyer, AP Singh, argued that Nirbhaya’s dying declaration was “doubtful”, and referred to a book in which questions had been raised about the suicide of one of the accused, Ram Singh, inside the jail. But the court refused to get into the argument with reference to the book.
Interestingly, Akshay Singh in his petition has argued that Delhi is a “gas chamber” and a person’s life is becoming shorter anyway. “Then why death penalty?” he said.
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