Nirbhaya death row: SC dismisses plea seeking execution of four convicts within 2 weeks

Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the PIL filed by laywer, Alakh Alok Srivastava, seeking a direction to the Centre to execute the death penalty awarded to four convicts -- Mukesh, Pawan, Vinay and Akshay -- in the sensational Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.

After noting that the petition is devoid of merits, the division bench of the Apex Court, headed by Justice Madan Bhimrao Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta, dismissed the petition of Srivastava, stating, "What kind of prayers you have? Dismiss."

In 2012, a 23-year-old paramedic student was gang-raped on December 16 inside a running bus in South Delhi by six persons. The victim, who was severely assaulted, was thrown out on the road along with her male friend. She succumbed to injuries at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore on December 29, where she had been airlifted for medical treatment.

The incident led to a huge public outcry, prompting the government to overhaul anti-rape laws.

Out of the six rapists, one of the accused, Ram Singh, committed suicide by hanging himself in the prison, while another, a juvenile served the maximum punishment of three years in a reform home and was set free in 2015.

In 2013, the four adult defendants were convicted and given death sentence by a trial court, which was confirmed by the Delhi High Court in March 2014. The Supreme Court, in 2017, upheld the Delhi HC's verdict.

The petition, filed by Srivastava, stated that a delay in execution of death penalty "apparently gives an impression in the minds of the rapists that they would also be harmless if they commit such heinous crimes".

The plea had also sought guidelines to prescribe strict timelines for speedy execution of death row convicts in rape-cum-murder cases. It further said that the fate of the accused must be decided within a period of eight months from the lower court to the apex court.

In July, the apex court had dismissed the pleas filed by Mukesh, Pawan, and Vinay seeking review of the SC verdict which had upheld the judgements of the Delhi High Court and the lower court awarding death punishment to them.