Nirbhaya Case: Supreme Court verdict on convict's review petition at 1 pm

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The Supreme Court would pronounce at 1 p.m. on Wednesday its verdict on 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 and comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna reserved its judgement on the review plea filed by death row convict Akshay Kumar Singh.

Opposing the review plea, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi government, told the bench that there are certain crimes where "humanity cries" and this is one of them.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the top court that the convicts in Nirbhaya case are making concerted efforts to "delay inevitable" and law must take its own course soon. "Convict doesn't deserve any leniency, God would feel ashamed on creating such "monster".

He further said, "there are certain crimes where "humanity cries" and this case is one of them."

Representing convict Akshay Kr Singh, Dr. AP singh submitted the new facts in the case. He said that the conviction was made against his clients under media pressure, public pressure and political pressure etc.

Raising question on the star witness, Singh argued that star witness Amarinder Pandey’s evidence and submissions in the case is unreliable.

Singh further said that death penalty is a primitive method of punishment; execution kills the crime and not the criminal, also said that use of death penalty didn't seem to be a deterrent effect to criminals and convicts.

"Forged reports were prepared. Akshay Kumar Singh was falsely implicated in the case. All was fabricated to book him,” Singh told the court.