Nirbhaya case: Delhi court dismisses convicts' plea seeking to stay their execution scheduled for Tuesday morning
A Delhi court on Monday dismissed the pleas of two of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case who were seeking a stay on the execution of death warrants, scheduled for Tuesday morning. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana rejected the applications of Akshay Singh and Pawan Kumar Gupta. After the order was passed, Gupta's lawyer, AP Singh, told the court that a mercy plea has been filed by his client before the President and therefore, his execution ought to be stayed.
The court, thereafter, asked Singh to come after lunch to argue on the point. The lawyer also said he filed the mercy plea after getting information that the Supreme Court had dismissed Gupta's curative petition.
Meanwhile, one of the death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya rape case, Pawan Gupta, on Monday filed a mercy petition before the President of India.
Advocate AP Singh informed Delhi's Patiala House Court that death row convict Pawan's mercy petition has been filed before the President. He was the only convict who had not availed of the remedy of mercy petition.
Earlier during the day, the top court had dismissed the curative petition filed by Pawan Gupta in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.
A five-judge bench headed by Justice NV Ramana, which considered the curative plea in-chamber, also rejected Pawan's application seeking stay on the execution of death sentence which is scheduled for Tuesday.
"The application for oral hearing is rejected. The application for stay of execution of the death sentence is also rejected. The curative petition is dismissed...," the bench, also comprising Justices Arun Mishra, R F Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan, said.
In his curative plea, Pawan had sought commutation of his death penalty to life imprisonment. He had also sought a stay on the execution of a black warrant issued by the trial court for the hanging.
The four convicts -- Akshay Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Kumar -- are scheduled to be hanged at 6 a.m. on March 3.
The case pertains to the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl, called later as Nirbhaya, in the national capital in December 2012. Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused.
Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail days after the trial began in the case. The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.
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