[Breaking] Nirbhaya Rape case: Supreme Court dismisses curative petition filed by death row convict Akshay; No stay on execution

The Supreme Court today dismissed the curative petition filed by one of the death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case, Akshay Kumar Singh. .We have gone through the Curative Petitions and the relevant documents. In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this Court in Rupa Ashok Hurra vs. Ashok Hurra & Another, reported in 2002 (4) SCC 388. Hence, the Curative Petitions are dismissed.Supreme Court.The order passed today also states that pleas made for an oral hearing and for a stay on the execution of the death sentence imposed on Akshay have been rejected. .The verdict was passed in chambers by a five-judge Bench comprising Justices NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, Rohinton Nariman, R Banumathi, and Ashok Bhushan, which took up the matter this afternoon. .On January 17, a fresh death warrant was issued against Singh and three other convicts by the trial court. The date for execution was set for February 1..The first death warrant against the four convicts was issued on January 7, and the convicts were to be hanged on January 22 at 7 pm. One of the convicts, Mukesh, had then filed his mercy plea after the dismissal of his curative petition by the Supreme Court..Mukesh had thereafter moved an application seeking to postpone the date of execution in view of the subsequent change of events i.e. filing and rejection of his curative and the filing of his mercy plea. A fresh death warrant was issued thus..A five-Judge Bench of the Apex Court had earlier dismissed curative petitions filed by Vinay and Mukesh. After the dismissal of the same, Mukesh had filed a mercy plea before the President, which was rejected..The rejection of this mercy plea was challenged before the Supreme Court and the same was also dismissed yesterday..Akshay is the third convict in the Nirbhaya case to file a curative petition..On December 16, 2012, six men in Delhi had brutally gang-raped a young woman, later named ‘Nirbhaya’, in a moving bus. The victim succumbed to her injuries two weeks later at a hospital in Singapore. The six accused were apprehended by the police..Of the six accused, the main accused committed suicide in Tihar jail during the course of the trial and the juvenile accused was sentenced to three years in a remand home upon conviction. The remaining four were handed a death penalty by the Additional Sessions Judge..The four convicts had then approached the Delhi High Court in appeal. After the High Court upheld the lower court verdict, the Supreme Court too upheld the death penalty in May 2017..In July 2018, the Supreme Court dismissed review petitions filed by three of the accused i.e Mukesh, Vinay and Pawan. The fourth convict, Akshay's review petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court in December last year..The four convicts are scheduled to be executed on February 1 at 6 AM..[Read the Order]