NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to set up a three-judge bench to take up a review petition filed by Delhi police against the judgement, acquitting three death row convicts in the 2012 Chhawla gang-rape and murder case.
In its plea, the Ministry of Home Affairs cited a "very important and vital development" of arrest of one of the accused in a murder case this year after release from jail.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on behalf of the Ministry mentioned the matter before a bench presided over by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud.
Mehta submitted an 18-year-old was raped and brutally murdered.
Now, one of the accused in the case has on January 26, 2023 slit the throat of an auto driver at Dwarka, he said asking the Chief Justice to set up a bench headed by CJI for an open court hearing.
The Chief Justice said he will constitute a bench of himself and Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Bela Trivedi, to examine the matter. The top court said it will also consider the request for an open court hearing.
The review petition claimed one of the accused, Vinod after being acquitted by this court of conviction and punishment granted to him for offences of kidnapping, gangrape, and murder, has after his release, killed an innocent auto driver when the deceased resisted robbery attempt.
Vinod has already been arrested in connection with the case.
The commission of murder after his release indicates that the accused is a hardened criminal who has abused the benevolence of this court, the plea claimed.
"The said fact (subsequent murder) assumes grave importance for adjudication of the present review petition as the act done by the accused Vinod clearly goes on to show that he was indeed a criminal minded person and is in fact a threat to the society as a whole and does not deserve any leniency whatsoever," it said.
"Though the accused will meet his fate in trial in the present FIR yet the review petitioner prays that this court may not like to ignore the fact that the accused Vinod seems to be habituated to committing gruesome crimes and does not deserve to be allowed to be in the society," it added.
Giving three death row convicts a benefit of doubt, the Supreme Court had on November 7, 2022 set them free in the 2012 murder and gangrape of a 19-year-old woman in Delhi's Chhawla area.
The top court had set aside their conviction and sentence after finding glaring lapses during investigation and trial of the case.
Subsequently, Delhi Lieutenant-Governor V K Saxena had approved the filing of a review petition against this judgment.
In December 2022, the top court refused to urgently list the plea seeking a review of the judgment.
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