Nirbhaya Case: Supreme Court Rejects Convict Pawan's Curative Plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday, dismissed the curative petition of death row convict Pawan Gupta sentenced to death by hanging in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder Case 2012. Pawan Gupta claimed that he was a juvenile at the time of commission of the crime. The apex court however dismissed his petition.

The Supreme Court's rejection of Pawan's curative plea paves the way for the execution of all four accused, Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta scheduled to be held on Friday morning. Nirbhaya's mother, Asha Devi told the media following the Supreme Court judgement that the accused have now exhausted all their legal options and had all along been trying to exploit loopholes in the judicial system.

The four death row convicts were sentenced to be executed by hanging by the Patiala House Court. Lawyers for the convicts had tried several delaying tactics hoping to stall the inevitable. AP Singh counsel for 3 of the convicts also wrote to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) seeking its intervention in the matter, citing the COVID-19 outbreak.

Named Nirbhaya to conceal her identity, a 26-year-old physiotherapy intern was brutally gang raped in a moving bus in South Delhi and thrown out of the vehicle. She was hospitalised and died subsequently days later towards the end of December 2012. Six criminals were arrested for their involvement in the gang rape and murder. One of them committed suicide in jail, while the other, served three years in a juvenile prison and was released subsequently.