With the growing clamour demanding immediate death penalty to be given to the Nirbhaya gang-rape culprits, one of the convicts, Pawan Kumar Gupta, has moved to the Delhi High Court claiming that he was juvenile at the time of the offence in December 2012.
Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the convicts in Nirbhaya case, moves Delhi HC claiming that he was a juvenile at the time of the offence in December 2012 and his ossification test was not done at that point and should be given the benefit of that. The matter to be heard tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/xGzz5FEUOa
— ANI (@ANI) December 18, 2019
Seeking clemency for his crime from the Delhi high court, Gupta, in the plea filed by him, has asserted that his ossification test was not done at that time and he should be granted the benefit of doubt for it. The petitioner cited the provision of section 7A of Juvenile Justice Act lays down that a claim of juvenility may be taken before any court and it shall be recognised at any stage, even after final disposal of the case.
His petition also refers to him as an “innocent boy” who is “falsely implicated” in the case by “anti social elements due to anti revenge full motive” and puts the blame on Delhi Police.
BIG BREAKING: One of the convicts in Nirbhaya case – Pawan Kumar – moves Delhi HC claiming he was a juvenile at the time of the incident in 2012. Petition refers to the rape convict as an “innocent boy” who is being falsely implicated by anti social elements. ? pic.twitter.com/WUsVri01Kz
— Nalini ? (@nalinisharma_) December 18, 2019
The plea filed by convict Pawan Kumar Gupta is listed for hearing on Thursday before Justice Suresh Kumar Kait.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Supreme Court had rejected the review petition filed by one of the death-row convicts, Akshay Kumar Singh, in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case.
Singh, in his petition to SC, had alleged that there has been an undue haste for hanging of the convicts in this case and submitted the list of death-row convicts in other cases who were yet to be hanged.
A 23-year-old paramedic student was brutally gang raped and cruelly assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in Delhi by six people before being thrown out on the road. After battling for her life for 13 days, the victim succumbed to her injuries on 29 December 2012.
Six persons were arrested in the case and following their trial, they were sentenced to death penalty by the trial abd High Court. The apex court in its 2017 verdict had upheld the capital punishment awarded to them by the Delhi High Court and the trial court in the case.
Last year on July 9, the Supreme Court had dismissed the review pleas filed by the other three convicts — Mukesh (30), Pawan Gupta (23) and Vinay Sharma (24) — in the case, saying no grounds have been made out by them for review of the 2017 verdict.
