Nirbhaya Case: Convict Pawan Gupta files curative petition asking commutation of death sentence
Nirbhaya Case: Fourth convict in Nirbhaya gangrape case Pawan Gupta has filed a curative petition before Supreme Court of India. He has requested the Supreme Court to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment. The four convicts -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31) -- in the Nirbhaya case are yet to exhaust all legal remedies. The President has dismissed the mercy petition of three convicts.
The legal to and fro may translate into a further delay in the actual execution of the convicts. Nirbhaya's parents have expressed displeasure over the delay so far.
Akshay Kumar, one on of the convicts has not yet moved the top court against rejection of his mercy plea.
Earlier, the top court dismissed separate pleas filed by Mukesh and Vinay against the President's decision to reject their mercy pleas.
A Delhi court on February 17, ordered that the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case will be hanged "by the neck until they are dead" on March 3 at 6 a.m. after observing that deferring the execution any further would be sacrilegious to the victim's rights.
"Article 21 merely guarantees an opportunity to the condemned convicts to exercise their legal rights. However, whether to utilise this opportunity is a matter of choice. The executions were deferred twice... deferring them any further would be sacrilegious to the rights of the victim for expeditious justice," the court observed.
(With IANS inputs)
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