SC rejects Nirbhaya convict's plea claiming he was minor at the time of crime

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday (March 19, 2020) dismissed death row convict Pawan Gupta's curative plea and rejected his juvenility claim in connection with the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.

The top court passed the order while hearing the curative petition of Gupta, one of the convicts in 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case. In his plea, Gupta had claimed that he was a minor “at the time of the offence'' and thereby his death sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment”.

The matter will be taken up by the six-judge bench of the apex court.

On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court had dismissed an application filed by another convict Mukesh Singh, challenging the trial court order that had dismissed his plea, seeking a stay on the execution claiming he was not present in Delhi on December 16, 2012, the night of the crime.

A single-judge HC Bench, headed by Justice Brijesh Sethi, while dismissing the plea filed through advocate ML Sharma had observed, “There are no grounds to interfere in the in the detailed and reasoned order dated 17.03.2020, passed by the trial court.”

“There is nothing on record to suggest that trial stands vitiated because material evidence was concealed. There is, thus, no infirmity, illegality or irregularity in the order passed by the trial court,” the court had said.

Meanwhile, in what could be another ploy to delay hanging, wife of a Nirbhaya convict has filed for a divorce in a local court in Bihar’s Aurangabad. In the plea, the wife of convict Akshay Kumar Singh said she does not want to live the life of a widow as her husband is set to be hanged on March 20. The court has posted the matter for March 19.

Notably, the convicts are scheduled to be hanged on March 20, 5:30 AM.