SC dismisses Nirbhaya convict Akshay Thakur’s curative petition

The Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon dismissed the curative petition filed by Nirbhaya case convict Akshay Thakur on Thursday. The hearing was conducted by a bench comprising six judges. Headed by Justice NV Ramana, the bench heard the curative petition filed by one of the four convicts.

The curative petition was Akshay’s last legal resort before the hanging. The four convicts in the case- Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Kumar Gupta and Mukesh Singh will be hanged on February 1.

In his petition, the convict sought commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment. The petition was filed by the convict’s counsel AP Singh. Singh said that the court should provide life imprisonment to the convict.

The petition read, “The hollow claim that the death penalty creates a special kind of deterrence which is not caused by life imprisonment and that life imprisonment amounts to ‘forgiving’ the criminal is backed by nothing more than a barely masked need to justify vengeance and retribution.”

On Wednesday, Vinay Sharma filed a mercy plea before the President of India. On Tuesday, convict Mukesh Singh filed a plea with the Supreme Court, challenging the rejection of his mercy petition. Mukesh Singh urged the apex court to review President Ram Nath Kovind’s rejection of his mercy plea.

The four convicts have used several delay tactics to postpone the date of their execution. The convicts’ counsel AP Singh had also accused officials of the Tihar Jail of not issuing the documents required for filing curative and mercy petitions.