Chandigarh : The Supreme Court today dismissed a review petition filed by Vikram Singh and Jasbir Singh, who are on death row for kidnapping and murdering Abhi Verma alias Harry — a 16-year-old student of Hoshiarpur’s DAV School — in 2005.
“We, after carefully considering the submissions of the applicants, are of the considered opinion that submissions raised in the petition do not raise any ground for a review of the judgment of this court dated January 25, 2010,” a three-Judge Bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said.
The convicts had kidnapped the son of goldsmith Ravi Verma on February 14, 2005, and later murdered him. The convicts now have a curative petition as their last legal recourse. In case this petition, too, is dismissed, they can file a mercy petition before the President or the Punjab Governor. Counsel BS Billowria and Vijay Pratap Singh said they were likely to file a curative petition after perusing a copy of the verdict. The Supreme Court had on January 25, 2010, confirmed the death sentence awarded to the two convicts. They moved a fresh petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, questioning the validity of Section 364A of the IPC (this Section has the provision of death penalty for kidnapping someone for ransom). The High Court had dismissed their plea on October 3, 2012, forcing them to approach the SC again.