Nirbhaya Gangrape Case: Supreme Court Dismisses Convict Pawan Gupta's Juvenile Review Plea

As per prison rules, a death row convict can only be hanged 14 days after the rejection of his mercy petition.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed convict Pawan Gupta’s petition claiming that he was a juvenile when the offence took place. The rapist had filed a review petition before the top court challenging its earlier order of dismissal of his Juvenile plea.

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In an attempt to stall their hanging, scheduled to be held on Feb 1 at 6 AM , the four rapists had filed several petitions before the top court. Beside curative petitions before the Supreme Court, a mercy plea has also been filed before President Kovind.  Yesterday, the court had dismissed the plea of Mukesh Singh who had challenged the rejection of his mercy petition by President Ram Nath Kovind.

“It can’t be said that the President didn’t apply his mind. Suffering in prison can’t be ground for mercy plea,” a five-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice NV Ramanna, and comprising Justice Arun Mishra, Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, Justice R Bhanumati and Justice Ashok Bhushan had said.

The four convicts –  Mukesh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) – were scheduled to be executed on January 22. However, it was delayed as Mukesh filed a mercy plea with the President.As per prison rules, a death row convict can only be hanged 14 days after the rejection of his mercy petition.

On the intervening night of December 16 and December 17, 2012, Nirbhaya, a 23-year-old paramedic student, was brutally gang-raped and assaulted inside a moving bus near nationa capital’s Munirka area by six persons before being dumped on the road. Two weeks later on December 29, she succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital.

Within 48 hours of the crime, the Delhi police arrested all the six accused and charged them with sexual assault and murder. While the prime accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide inside Tihar Jail, one of the convicts, a minor, who was just short of 18 when the crime took place appeared before the juvenile justice court and released after three years in a reform home.

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