Nirbhaya case: Convict Pawan Files Curative Plea in Supreme Court

Pawan Gupta, one of the four death row convicts sentenced to be hanged on March 3, has filed a fresh curative plea in the Supreme Court seeking his death sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment. By submitting his plea at this late stage, Pawan Gupta is resorting to another delaying tactic, which has been the pattern in the case of all the four death row convicts.

The Supreme Court will hear Pawan's curative petition on March 2. This would mean that the hanging may not take place on March 3 as per schedule, since the law states that all the four death row convicts sentenced to death should be hanged together.

The four accused in the horrific 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Singh and Pawan Gupta were sentenced to death. The death warrants for their hanging were issued by the Patiala house court and the execution was scheduled for March 3.

In view of Pawan's fresh curative plea seeking remission of death sentence to life imprisonment, the hanging is not likely to take place on March 3 and a fresh death warrant will have to be issued by the Patiala house court.

The Nirbhaya case in which a 26-year-old para-medic was brutally, gang-raped, tortured and left to die in December 2012, shocked the nation. Of the six accused, one committed suicide in jail, while a juvenile was released after serving 3 months.