[Breaking] Nirbhaya Rape: Supreme Court dismisses curative petitions filed by two death row convicts

The Supreme Court today dismissed the curative petitions filed by two of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya rape case - Mukesh and Vinay Sharma.

A five-Judge Bench of Justices NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, Rohinton Nariman, R Banumathi, and Ashok Bhushan pronounced the verdict in chambers, after they took up the matter around 1.45 pm this afternoon.

On January 7, Additional Sessions Judge at the Patiala House Court of Delhi, Satish Arora, issued a death warrant against the four convicts in the case paving the way for them to be hanged on January 22 at 7AM in Delhi's Tihar Jail.

Two days after the death warrant was issued, Vinay Sharma moved the Supreme Court in pursuance to the availability of the legal remedy to him. Mukesh was the second to move the Supreme Court with his curative petition. The convicts also have the remedy of mercy plea.

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.

[Read the Order]

[Read the curative petitions filed by Vinay Sharma and Mukesh]