One of the 4 death row convicts, Pawan Kumar Gupta, in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case moved a curative plea in the Top Court on Friday seeking commutation of his death penalty to life imprisonment. He has also sought a stay on the execution of the black warrant issued by the Trial Court for the hanging.
Gupta, against whom the death warrant has been issued for execution along with 3 other condemned prisoners on March 3, has filed the curative plea saying that the death penalty shouldn’t awarded to him, his lawyer A P Singh said.
He is the lone convict who has not exhausted his legal remedies of filing a curative plea — last legal remedy available to a person — and subsequent mercy plea with the President.
On Feb 17, the Trial Court issued fresh date for execution of death warrants for March 3 at 6 am for the 4 convicts — Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31) — in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.
The mercy pleas of 3 convicts — Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay — have already been dismissed by the President.
The Supreme Court had earlier dismissed separate pleas filed by Mukesh and Vinay challenging the rejection of their mercy petitions by the President.
Akshay hasn’t yet challenged the rejection of his mercy plea.
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