Nirbhaya case: 3 days before hanging, Pawan files curative plea

New Delhi: Three days before the execution, Pawan Kumar, one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, on Friday filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court, seeking commutation of capital punishment to life imprisonment.

A death warrant has been issued against Pawan Kumar along with three other condemned prisoners for March 3. Advocate A.P. Singh, representing Pawan Kumar, said he was a juvenile during the time of the commission of the offence, and the death penalty should not awarded to him. Singh also sought a stay on the execution of the death warrant issued by the trial court.

Pawan Kumar is the only convict who is yet to exhaust all legal remedies – a curative petition, which is the final legal remedy available, and the filing the mercy petition before the President.

Speaking to media persons, Singh said there have been many errors in the previous judgements and he expects that these errors will be amended through this curative petition. “Our main contention is that on the time of the commission of the offence, Pawan was attending a musical programme,” he said.

The top court had earlier dismissed separate pleas filed by Mukesh and Vinay challenging the decision of the President to reject their mercy petitions. Akshay is yet to challenge the rejection of his mercy petition.

A fresh date of execution of death warrant was issued by the trial court on February 17. The trial court fixed the execution on March 3 at 6 a.m. for the four convicts — Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31) — in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.

On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern was gang raped and brutally murdered in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died after a fortnight.

IANS