The last rites of investigative TV journalist Akshay Singh, who was covering Vyapam scam, was held on Sunday in the capital where Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal were among those present, amid mounting outrage over his mysterious death.
The three convicts who approached the ICJ are Akshay Singh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma. The International Court of Justice, sometimes called the World Court, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.
The convicts can also avail the constitutional remedy of filing mercy pleas with the President.
The four convicts are scheduled to be hanged at 5:30 am on March 20.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah held Singh's plea as not maintainable saying that the review petition and the curative petition have both been dismissed in the case.
Madhya Pradesh Cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya left no stone unturned to rub on their wounds.
The four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case spent a restless and sleepless night. They were asked to take a bath but none of them did. All of them were served their last meal but one of them refused breakfast before being taken to the gallows, an official said.
The petition sought recording of calls, documents and reports by an investigating agency like CBI and to declare that the convict has legal and constitutional rights to approach any court at any time even in the last minute of hanging.
Akshay Singh, who worked for TV Today group, began frothing at the mouth and wad rushed to civil hospital and later to a private hospital, but doctors failed to revive him.
The head of a United Nations agency mandated to defend freedom of expression has called on Indian authorities to investigate the mysterious death of TV reporter Akshay Singh while covering the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh, saying crimes against journalists must not go unpunished.
Mehta told Justice Suresh Kait that convict Pawan Gupta's move of not filing a curative or a mercy petition is a deliberate, calculated inaction.
Additional Session Judge Dharmender Rana issued notice to Tihar Jail authorities on the pleas moved of Akshay Singh and Pawan Kumar Gupta, directing the officials to file their response by March 2.
'My vote has gone for better education, health, and jobs for the youth, as I am one'
Even as the Vyapam scam gets murkier, MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan met the family of Akshay Singh and spent 30 minutes condoling them.
Asha Devi said that justice was delayed, but not denied, and added that they would continue their fight for justice for India's daughters.
'Capital punishments have rarely acted as a deterrent. What we need to do is to make our society, our workplaces, our streets safe for women'
After being permitted by the court to speak, Akshay Singh, his voice quivering with emotion, told Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Yogesh Khanna that a police constable was threatening to kill him or hang him inside the jail.
Justice Pratibha Rani also upheld the order of a special court by which the plea of accused Mukesh and Akshay Singh against day-to-day trial was rejected.
A plea of two accused in the December 16 gang rape that instead of day-to-day trial, it be held on alternate days, was today rejected by a special court in New Delhi, which also pulled up their lawyers saying such pleas are made to delay the proceedings.
One of the six accused in the December 16 gangrape of a 23-year-old paramedical student, who died on Saturday, was remanded in judicial custody for 12 days by a Delhi court.
With calls for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the Vyapam scam getting louder by the day, Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday said it was not averse to such an inquiry but the decision will have to come from the Madhya Pradesh high court, which is monitoring the case.
Terming the spate of deaths associated with the Vyapam scam as "extremely intriguing and deeply suspicious", Congress today demanded a Supreme Court monitored CBI investigation into the matter.
The dean of a Jabalpur Medical College, suspected of having links to some accused in the Vyapam scam, was found dead under mysterious circumstances at a hotel in south-west Delhi's Dwarka on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences will send the viscera Singh's samples to the central forensic laboratory in New Delhi to test for poisoning
The sequel will be directed by Anees Bazmee.
A day after its journalist Akshay Singh who was covering Vyapam scam died under mysterious circumstances, India Today group has urged Madhya Pradesh government to send his viscera sample to a forensic laboratory outside the state, preferably AIIMS here, for a transparent examination.
The Centre has put the blame on state governments while state governments complain that money is not released for the proposals given by them to the Empowered Committee that has been tasked with recommending proposals to be funded under this framework.
The convicts, who did not seek any further action after the Supreme Court dismissed their appeals challenging their death penalty and review pleas of three of them in May 2017 and July 2018, vigorously started pursuing the legal remedies left to them from January 7 onwards as a trial court had fixed January 20 for their hanging.
Pramod Singh Kushwaha, then the additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) and who headed the investigation team, said each member of the team pitched in to prepare a watertight case against the convicts.
A whistle-blower in Madhya Pradesh's Vyapam scam was transferred even as the Supreme Court on Monday allowed the SIT and STF of the state to file chargesheets in the cases.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kailash Vijaywargiya on Monday stroked a controversy when he termed the 'Vyapam' scam as a "small scandal" even as the CBI took over the probe into the massive admission and recruitment scandal which has rocked Madhya Pradesh.
After the Madhya Pradesh government agreed to get the viscera samples of deceased TV journalist Akshay Singh tested at AIIMS in Delhi, a panel of doctors that conducted the autopsy on the body at the Dahod General Hospital in Gujarat have "reserved" their opinion on the cause of death, police said on Monday.
The Centre on Sunday said that a "very fair inquiry" should be conducted to put to rest all doubts over the mysterious death of TV journalist Akshay Singh while covering the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh even as Congress wanted a CBI probe into the case.
A Special Investigation Team probe into the notorious Vyapam scam is monitored by the Madras high court and the government cannot order the court to hand it over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday.
After Bharatiya Janata Party veteran Shanta Kumar raised concerns over the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan wrote a point-by-point rebuttal to Kumar, saying Vyapam was the propaganda of Congress, which was playing politics over scam-related deaths.
Three fresh cases have been registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with multi-crore rupee Vyapam scam.
Ramakant Pandey, who was questioned four months ago, over alleged fraudulent recruitments was found hanging from a ceiling fan.
'If they felt that my post was wrong they should have filed a defamation case against me.' 'Why pick up in the night and detain me?' 'I was scared and thought I will be beaten up. I thought anything can happen to me and I can even die.' Abhishek Mishra on his detention.
Dr Anand Rai says his fight has cost him a great deal. But the battle is far from over.
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