Nirbhaya case: Media reports can't be considered while arriving at conclusion, says SC

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said media reports cannot be taken into consideration before arriving at a conclusion on either culpability of accused or test the credibility of witnesses in a case.

The apex court made the observation while dismissing the plea filed by one of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case seeking review of its 2017 verdict upholding his death penalty.

With this verdict on the plea of convict Akshay Kumar Singh, the review petitions of all the four death row convicts in the case stand dismissed by the top court.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice R Banumathi said, "In a criminal case, culpability or otherwise of the accused are based upon appreciation of evidence adduced by the prosecution and also the evidence adduced by the defence.

 

"The materials or the news emerging in the media and press as also the news channels cannot be taken note of in arriving at a conclusion on the culpability of the accused or to test credibility of the witness. Such events cannot be urged as a ground for review," the bench, also comprising justices Ashok Bhushan and A S Bopanna, said.

During the arguments on the review plea, advocate A P Singh, appearing for convict Akshay Kumar Singh, referred to a sting operation and alleged that the complainant in the case who is the sole eye-witness of the incident had taken lakhs of rupees to give statements to various media channels when the trial in the case was going on at the Saket district court here.

He also referred to a book titled 'Black Warrant', written by former law officer of Tihar Jail Sunil Gupta, and claimed that the officer has expressed his opinion that accused Ram Singh, who had allegedly committed suicide in the jail, was murdered in the prison on March 11, 2013.

"Here again, the opinion of the said former law officer Sunil Gupta is only his opinion which is not supported by any material. If the former law officer had any doubt regarding death of Ram Singh, the said officer could have offered himself to appear as a defence witness or he could have filed an affidavit before any of the courts, either trial court or High Court or before the Supreme Court," the bench said.

"The opinion of the said officer Sunil Gupta which is not supported by any material, cannot be a ground for reviewing our judgment," it said.

During the arguments when Singh referred to the book, the bench orally said, "Criminal trial is based on the evidence which is brought before the court. We cannot go by what some writer writes in his book. It is a very dangerous trend if somebody writes books and says these things after the trial is over."

On July 9 last year, the top court had dismissed the review pleas filed by the other three convicts -- Mukesh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma -- in the case, saying no grounds have been made out by them for review of the 2017 verdict.

A 23-year-old paramedic student was gang raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 in a moving bus in south Delhi by six persons before they threw her out on the road.

She died on December 29, 2012 at a hospital in Singapore.

One of the six accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail here.

A juvenile involved in the crime was convicted by a juvenile justice board and was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.