The Supreme Court on Monday, March 2, dismissed a curative petition filed by Delhi gang rape and murder convict Pawan Kumar Gupta, a day before their scheduled date of hanging.
The apex court was hearing 'in chamber' the curative plea of 25-year-old Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case. A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice NV Ramana said no case is made out for re-examining the conviction and the punishment of the convict.
Pawan 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 case pertains to the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl, later dubbed as Nirbhaya, in the national capital in December 2012.
Nirbhaya convicts to be hanged tomorrow
The four death-row convicts in Nirbhaya rape and murder case will be executed on March 3 at 6 am. The fresh date was issued by Patiala House court on Monday, February 17.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana pronounced the order on a petition seeking issuance of fresh date for execution of death warrants in the case pertaining to the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in the national capital in December 2012.
Earlier, the Delhi HC stated that all four convicts -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31) -- have to be executed together and not separately.
This was the third death warrant issued by the court. Earlier ones issued could not be carried out as the convicts took it in turns to use every legal option that was available to them.
(With agency inputs)
