Nirbhaya case: Supreme Court rejects review petition and upholds death penalty

• Supreme Court of India rejects the review petition of Akshay Singh, one of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case.
• The Supreme Court today upheld the 2017 judgement saying that it found no error in the verdict given by a fast-track court.
• Two years back, four of the six accused in the horrific rape case were sentenced to death.

The Supreme Court today upheld the 2017 judgement saying that it found no error in the verdict given by a fast-track court. Two years back, four of the six accused in the horrific rape case were sentenced to death.

In a review petition, Akshay Kumar Singh — one of the accused said that no CBI probe was conducted and that the real culprits are still out. He also argued that six people cannot possibly rape a girl in 21 minutes.

He also presented a book by Sunil Gupta — that talks about yet another accused Ram Singh’s death in Tihar jail. Ram Singh had committed suicide in jail.

One of the bizarre arguments by Akshay Kumar Singh was about Delhi’s bad air quality he said, “People are already dying so why give a death penalty.”

The horrific Nirbhaya case
In 2012, a 23-year-old paramedical student was gangraped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17 inside a moving bus. Later, she was thrown out at an isolated place by the accused.

Due to the brutality inflicted on her, she died on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. Police had arrested all the six accused in the case. Ram Singh, one of them allegedly committed suicide in jail. A juvenile who also convicted was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.

As many cases and petitions were filed after the fast track court verdict. In fact, in 2017, Supreme Court upheld capital punishment and so did the Delhi High Court.

Thousands of people marched on the street across the country to protest against the judicial system. The case lead to the government setting up Nirbhaya Fund — a Rs 10 billion corpus which helps state governments facilitate women safety services. The government also introduced a Nirbhaya Act on April 3, 2013 that mandates strict punishments for sex crimes.

The government also expanded the definition of rape and involved forced penetration, oral, vaginal or anal, with any foreign object in it. It also recognised stalking and voyeurism as an offence. The law also stated that certain offence will be dealt separately under IPC such as acid attack (Sec 326A), attempt to acid attack (Sec 326B), sexual harassment (Sec 354A), act with intention to disrobe a woman (Sec 354B), voyeurism (Sec 354C), and stalking (Sec 354D).

In 2019, two rape cases shocked the nation when both the victims were burnt to death. The first was the rape and murder of a 27-year old doctor in Hyderabad which culminated into an encounter where all the accused were shot by Telangana police. Yet another rape victim of Unnao died a horrific death as the 23 year old girl was stabbed and set on fire as she was on her way to a court hearing.

This week, a Delhi Court convicted former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar for kidnapping and raping a minor girl in Unnao in 2017.


See also:
Hyderabad rape case accused shot dead in an encounter and magisterial probe is ordered