Pawan Gupta is the last death row convict in Dec. 16 gangrape case to move SC with his curative plea, the final legal remedy available to a person.
NEW DELHI| The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the curative petition filed by Pawan Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in 2012 gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi dubbed “Nirbhaya” by the media, a day before their scheduled date of hanging.
Pawan Gupta, 25, was the only convict in the case who had not exhausted his legal remedy of a curative petition.
On Friday, Pawan filed the curative plea through lawyer A P Singh seeking setting aside of the apex court’s earlier verdicts on appeals and review petitions in the case.
In his plea, he had requested the court that his death sentence be changed to life imprisonment.
Advocate A P Singh said he filed an application in the apex court registry on Sunday seeking an oral hearing on Pawan’s curative plea in the open court.
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No case is made out for re-examining the conviction and the punishment of the convict said a five-judge bench headed by Justice NV Ramana.
He can now file a mercy plea before President Ram Nath Kovind. The mercy petitions of the three other convicts – Mukesh Kumar Singh, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Kumar – have already been dismissed by the President.
The Supreme Court had earlier dismissed the pleas filed by Mukesh Kumar Singh and Vinay Kumar Sharma that challenged the rejection of their mercy petitions. Akshay Kumar has not yet challenged the rejection of his mercy petition.
The four convicts, along with two others – one of them a minor – had gang-raped the young woman and tortured her with an iron rod on the night of December 16, 2012. She died on December 29 at a hospital in Singapore.
One of the attackers, just short of 18 when the crime was committed, was released after spending three years at a reform home. The main accused, Ram Singh, was found hanging in jail.
The brutality of the attack had outraged the nation bringing thousands on the streets in protest, which led to key changes in the law and security system.
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