Nirbhaya rapist files review plea

New Delhi: Akshay Kumar Singh, who was awarded death sentence along with three others in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape that led to her death and caused national outrage, moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking reconsideration of its May 5, 2017 verdict upholding his death sentence.

He has, in his petition, challenged the evidence against him, spoken of his poor family that is dependent on him and cited his reformation in jail. The plea, strangely, talked about the health risks such as rising pollution level in Delhi and said, “Life is going short to short, then why death penalty.”

He has also raised the issue of ‘inhumanity’ of death sentence, its inconsistent application by judiciary, and asked the court to reconsider its death sentence awarded to him in view of the short span of human life in Kali Yug.

The top court had on May 5, 2017 upheld the death sentence of Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Kumar Singh, saying that the aggravating circumstances against them far outweighed the mitigating circumstances cited in their favour.

Akshay Singh, in his plea seeking review of the verdict, has contended that he is from a poor and respected family and is its only caretaker. Making a class distinction, he has said that the extreme penalty of death sentence would hardly find an affluent person going to the gallows.

Pointing out that “our criminal justice system cannot guarantee the consistent application of legal standards and rule of law,” Akshay said, “How can we allow judiciary to decided who will live or die?”