SC spurns curative pleas by 2 Nirbhaya convicts
| Date :15-Jan-2020 |
NEW DELHI :
A five-judge bench of the apex court rejects curative petitions filed by Vinay and Mukesh
THE Supreme Court Tuesday refused to stay the execution of two of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case while dismissing their curative petitions against their conviction and capital punishment. The four convicts -- Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Kumar (32), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25) -- are to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail as a Delhi court had issued their death warrants on January 7. A five-judge bench of the apex court, during in-chamber proceedings, rejected the curative petitions filed by Vinay and Mukesh. “The applications for oral hearing are rejected.
The applications for stay of execution of death sentence are also rejected,” a bench, headed by Justice N V Ramana, said in its order. “We have gone through the curative petitions and the relevant documents. In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this court in Rupa Ashok Hurra vs Ashok Hurra & another, reported in 2002 (4) SCC 388. “Hence, the curative petitions are dismissed,” said the bench, also comprising Justices Arun Mishra, R F Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan.
A curative petition is the last and final legal remedy available to a person. The five judges were unanimous that there was no merit in the curative petitions filed by the two convicts, Vinay and Mukesh, on January 9. The other two convicts, Akshay and Pawan have not filed curative petitions yet. “I have sought details from Tihar Jail about the conduct of these convicts during their stay on the prison from 2012 till 2019. Once I will receive those details, I will file curative petitions for Akshay and Pawan,” Singh told PTI. Singh said that last week he had approached the jail authorities seeking details about conduct of these convicts in the prison but he has not been provided with it yet. A 23-year-old paramedic was gangraped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people before being thrown out on the road.
She died on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. The Supreme Court had in 2017 upheld the capital punishment awarded to the four convicts by the Delhi High Court and a trial court. One of the six accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail. A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board and was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.
Big day for me: Nirbhaya’s mother
NEW DELHI :
SHORTLY after the Supreme Court dismissed curative petitions of the two death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape case, victim’s mother Asha Devi said that it is a big day for her but added that the “biggest day” will be January 22 when convicts will be hanged. “This is a big day for me. I had been struggling for the last 7 years. But the biggest day will be January 22nd when they (convicts) will be hanged,” Asha Devi told ANI while flashing victory signs.
A five-judge Bench of Justices N V Ramana, Arun Mishra, R F Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan heard the petitions filed by Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh. The duo had moved the curative petitions in the top court after a Delhi court issued death warrants in their names for their hanging on January 22. Besides them, two other convicts named Pawan and Akshay are also slated to be executed on the same day at 7 am in Delhi’s Tihar Jail premises.
They were convicted and sentenced to death for raping a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus in the national capital on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012. The victim, who was later given the name Nirbhaya, had succumbed to injuries at a hospital in Singapore where she had been airlifted for medical treatment. After the rejection of pleas, the convicts are legally bound to move a mercy petition before the President, who has the power to commute it to life imprisonment.
Nirbhaya convict files mercy plea before President
NEW DELHI :
ONE of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape-murder case who are to be hanged on January 22 filed a mercy plea before the President on Tuesday shortly after the Supreme Court refused to stay the execution of two of them including him. The mercy plea was filed by 32-year-old Mukesh Kumar, who along with Vinay Sharma (26), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25), are scheduled to be hanged at 7 am on January 22 in Tihar jail following an order by a Delhi court which issued their death warrants on January 7.