SC Rejects Nirbhaya Rapist Pawan's Plea Claiming Juvenility. No More Delay Tactics?
The Supreme Court has now rejected the plea of a death row convict in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case challenging the Delhi High Court order, which had dismissed his claim of being a juvenile at the time of the offence.
The Supreme Court has now rejected the plea of a death row convict in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case challenging the Delhi High Court order, which had dismissed his claim of being a juvenile at the time of the offence.
A bench comprising Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bushan and A S Bopanna dismissed the plea of convict Pawan Kumar Gupta and upheld the Delhi High Court verdict.
Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Singh, Akshay Kumar Singh, and Pawan Gupta were arrested along with one Ram Singh and a juvenile in 2012 December for the horrific gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student on a moving bus in Delhi.
While Ram Singh was found dead in his jail cell, in an apparent suicide during the trial, the juvenile was released in December 2015.
As of now, the four men are to be hanged at Delhi's Tihar Jail on February 1.
"We don't find any ground to entertain this petition. Once the issue of juvenility is examined and rejected by courts it can't be raised again," the Supreme Court noted.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Delhi Police, said it would be a "travesty of justice" if the convict was allowed to raise the claim of juvenility repeatedly and at this point of time.
He stressed that the convict was 19 years old at the time of the offence and there is a certified copy of his birth certificate as well as a school-leaving certificate. These were taken on record by each and every judicial forum.
Nirbhaya case: SC rejects plea of death row convict claiming he was juvenile when crime was committed in 2012
¡ª Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) January 20, 2020
The police also said Pawan's parents had confirmed his age. They noted that his parents did not dispute that he was above 18 when Nirbhaya was gang-raped, tortured and killed in December 2012.
#Breaking | SC rejects Nirbhaya rape convict Pawan Gupta's plea.
¡ª TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) January 20, 2020
'Pawan Gupta is not a juvenile', says the SC also adding that it finds no grounds to interfere with the HC order that rejected Pawan Gupta¡¯s plea.
TIMES NOW's Bhavatosh & Harish with details. pic.twitter.com/GqxWEj79iw
One of the six men arrested for the crime was proven to be a juvenile at the time and had been released after three years in a reform home. The four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang rape have been pulling all stops to delay the inevitable- their death sentence. From challenging their 2013 death sentences in High Court and Supreme Court to filing review and curative petitions and mercy plea.
