Delhi rape convicts’ mercy plea rejected, hanging set for tomorrow

New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday rejected the second mercy petition filed by 2012 Delhi gang-rape case convicts Pawan Gupta and Akshay Thakur, clearing the way for their hanging on Friday.

The four convicts will be hanged at 5:30 am tomorrow, as per the death warrant issued by a Delhi court.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had dismissed the curative petition filed by Gupta against a January 20 judgment of the top court which had dismissed his claim of juvenility.

A six-judge bench, headed by Justice NV Ramana, turned down Gupta’s plea as well as his request for oral hearing of the petition.

A curative petition is the last judicial resort available to a litigant for redressal of grievances. It is a remedy established by the Supreme Court through its judgement in the Rupa Asok Hurra v Ashok Hurra case and is decided by the judges in-chamber.

The apex court bench headed by justice R Banumathi, on January 20, had dismissed Gupta’s petition in which he had claimed that he was a juvenile at the time of commission of offence in December 2012. A review petition against the January 20 judgment was dismissed on January 31.

Earlier, the Delhi high court had rejected his claim on December 19 last year after which he moved the Supreme Court in appeal.

Meanwhile, authorities in Delhi’s Tihar jail have begun the final preparations as less than 16 hours are left for the hanging of these convicts. All the four convicts – Mukesh Singh, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma – will be hanged simultaneously inside jail number 3.

The four men are currently lodged in jail 3 next to the hanging courtyard. Each convict is lodged separately and guarded by at least 2-3 jail wardens who monitor their movements round-the-clock.

The four men had assaulted and gang raped a 23-year-old paramedic student inside a moving bus in South Delhi on December 16, 2012. The young woman died at a hospital in Singapore two weeks later.

HT