NEW DELHI, MARCH 19
The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed death-row convict Akshay Kumar’s plea challenging the rejection of his second mercy petition by the President.
A bench of Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna said no ground was made out in Akshay’s plea for judicial review of the decision rejecting mercy petition.
Akshay had filed the second mercy petition on Wednesday which was rejected by the President on Thursday. He had filed his first mercy plea on January 29 which was rejected on January 31.
Meanwhile, the wife of Akshay Kumar, one of the four death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape-and-murder case, who has filed for divorce, fainted outside the Patiala House court here on Thursday and said she and her minor son be hanged too.
Kumar’s wife, Puneeta Devi, filed a divorce petition before a Bihar family court recently, saying she did not wish to live with the label of “a rapist’s widow”.
“I want justice too. Kill me too. I do not want to live. My husband is innocent. Why is the society after us? ” she said while crying hysterically outside the court.
“We were living with the hope that we will get justice but we are being killed every day for the last seven years,” she added.
Devi, who beat herself with sandals, was consoled by the lawyers present outside the court. However, the counsel for the victim’s parents said the convict did not deserve any leniency.
“Akshay was a member of our society. Everybody is pained by unnatural deaths, but Akshay does not deserve any leniency,” he said.
On March 5, a trial court issued fresh death warrants for 5.30 am on March 20 for the execution of convicts Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31).
The court was informed on Thursday that no legal remedies of any of the convicts were pending in any court.
