SC starts hearing in review plea of Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder convict

The Supreme Court on Tuesday started the hearing in the review plea filed by one of the four convicts awaiting death penalty in connection with the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case.

The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde and comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan and Justice R Banumathi started hearing Akshay Kumar Singh's petition at around 2 pm.

Appearing for Singh, advocate AP Singh is making arguments in the matter.

Singh had on December 10 filed a review petition seeking modification and leniency in the sentence.

In May 2017, a three-judge bench of the top court had dismissed the appeals filed by all the four convicts against the death sentence awarded to them.

The four convicts -- Mukesh, Akshay, Pawan and Vinay -- had knocked the doors of the apex court against a Delhi High Court order which confirmed the capital punishment awarded to them by the trial court in September 2013.

In a voluminous judgement, the bench of the top court had held the attitude of offenders as "bestial proclivity" and said, "It sounds like a story from a different world where humty is treated with irreverence."

The 23-year-old paramedical student was gang-raped in a moving bus by six persons on the night of December 16, 2012. Out of the six, one was a minor and appeared before a juvenile justice court, while another accused committed suicide in Tihar jail.

( With inputs from ANI )