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

New Delhi [India], Dec 17 (ANI): 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 humanity 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. (ANI)