The Supreme Court, today has dismissed the fourth death row convict, Pawan Kumar Gupta’s curative petition in the gruesome 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape case.
The five-judge bench comprising of Justices NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, RF Nariman, R Banumathi, and Ashok Bhushan while hearing the curative petition filed by the convict Pawan Gupta ‘in-chamber’ has rejected the same, stating that no case is made out for re-examining the conviction and the punishment of the convict.
Pawan’s advocate, AP Singh filed an application in the apex court registry on 1 March, seeking an oral hearing of his curative plea in the open court, claiming juvenility of his client and sought commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment. Pawan claimed that his age on the day of the offense was 16 years and two months as per his school records and stated that his age has not been determined following the procedures laid down under the Juvenile Justice Act and that the same was suppressed by the State throughout the proceedings.
The 25-year-old, Pawan Gupta is the last death row convict in the case to file his curative petition on 28 February. With the dismissal of the said petition in the chamber, Pawan is now left to file a mercy plea before the President Ram Nath Kovind.
Earlier, the curative petition of the other three convicts, Vinay Sharma, Mukesh, and Akshay was dismissed by the Supreme Court and subsequently, their mercy petition was also dismissed by the President.
