One of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya case, Akshay Kumar Singh, 31, has moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking a review petition of its 2017 verdict which handed out the death penalty to all of them in the December 16, 2012, rape-murder case.
The petition makes a bizarre plea in the top court and says that since Delhi's air is like a "gas chamber" and its water is "poisonous", the life span of anyone residing in the national capital is already shortened with the result a death penalty becomes moot.
"Everyone is aware of what is happening in Delhi NCR with regard to water and air. Life is going from short to shorter, then why the death penalty?" the petition reads.
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The petitioner goes further to argue that when the average life span of humans is already getting shorter, as is evidenced by the ancient mythological texts, the death penalty is not required.
"Ïn Ved, Purana and Upanishads it is mentioned that in Satyug, people lived for thousands of years. In Treta Yug, men lived for 100 years. But, in this era-Kalyug-the age of humans is reduced to 50-60 years."
When age is reducing, why death penalty?" the plea reads.
The other three convicts had filed review pleas in the apex court on 9 July 2018 which was dismissed by the apex court.
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Nirbhaya was a 23-year-old paramedic student, who was gang raped on the intervening night of 16-17 December 2012 inside a running bus in South Delhi by six persons.
She died on 29 December, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.
