New Delhi:
The Supreme Court of India will consider review petition of the Nirabhaya case convict Akshay Kumar Singh on December 17. Singh, one of the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, has moved the top court seeking review of its 2017 judgment handing down death penalty to all of them. The apex court, on July 9, 2018, had dismissed the review pleas filed by three other convicts in the case. Akshay (31) who had not filed the review plea earlier with other three convicts, has now moved the apex court with the petition, his lawyer AP Singh said. A three-judge bench will hear the plea filed by Singh, whose lawyer has questioned in the review petition the capital punishment at a time life is getting "short" due to rising pollution.
Speculations were rife that the convicts of Nirbhaya case were likely to hanged on 16 December- the seventh anniversary of the heinous crime. However, with Supreme Court to hear Akshay Kumar Singh's plea on December 17- these speculations have been put to rest.
There has reports that Tihar jail authorities are busy with preparations for the executions. A report by Hindustan Times said that the Tihar Jail officials are silently preparing to hang the convicts. The report added that from ordering execution ropes to writing to other states for hangmen, Tihar Jail officials are readying for the crucial day.
The Tihar Jail in Delhi has asked Uttar Pradesh to provide two hangmen at short notice. Uttar Pradesh's Additional Director General (Prisons) Anand Kumar told reporters on Thursday that the department is ready to provide the hangmen.
A 23-year-old paramedic student, who came to be known as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in south Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road. She succumbed to injuries on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.
