Prez.Kovind rejects Nirbhaya convict Vinay Sharma’s mercy plea
NEW DELHI : President Ram Nath Kovind today turned down the mercy petition of Nirbhaya gang-rape convict Vinay Sharma, the second convict to have exhausted his last constitutional remedy after Mukesh Kumar.
The two other convicts Pawan Gupta and Akshay Thakur, are yet to approach the President for mercy. The President’s decision exhausts all the possibilities of Sharma escaping the gallows.
Initially, the four convicts in the case – Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Singh, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Kumar Gupta – were to be hanged today. Pawan Jallad, a third-generation hangman from Meerut was also brought to the Tihar Jail for the execution.
On Friday morning, the authorities of the jail also performed a dummy execution of the four men ahead of the actual hanging. On Thursday, the Supreme Court of India had rejected the curative petition filed by Akshay Thakur.
SC hearing on Pawan Kumar Gupta’s petition SC dismisses review petition filed by Nirbhaya case convict Pawan Kumar Gupta.
Nirbhaya convicts’ lawyer urges Delhi court to adjourn execution ‘sine die’, order reserved
Yesterday, the Supreme Court of India rejected the review petition filed by Pawan Kumar Gupta. In his petition, Gupta had moved the court seeking a review of the dismissal of his Special Leave Petition (SLP). In his SLP, the convict had claimed that he was a minor at the time of the incident. From filing mercy petitions to making false accusations against the Tihar Jail authorities, the four men have left no stone unturned to delay their hanging.
One day before the execution, AP Singh, the counsel of three of the convicts had approached the court, seeking a stay order on the execution. In his application, Singh had requested the court to adjourn the execution “sine die” (no specified date for resumption). He said that the execution should be postponed as the convicts have not exhausted their legal remedies.
Despite repeated attempts of the counsel, the court observed that four convicts were using delay tactics. Meanwhile, Irfan Ahmed, the legal representative of Tihar Jail accused the convicts of using delay tactics and said that a stay on the execution was not “maintainable”. He told the court, “Only one convict’s (Vinay Sharma’s) mercy plea is pending and that others can be hanged. He added that there is no illegality in it.”
The four will now not hang until further orders in the case, Delhi’s Patiala House Court said. They had originally been sentenced to hang on January 22 but that was postponed after Mukesh Singh’s mercy plea was rejected.
Today’s mercy plea rejection means the earliest the four can be hanged is February 15; rules state a convict must be given 14 days between the rejection of a mercy plea and his execution.
Amid growing anger and frustration at a judicial system seen to be offering more support to the perpetrators of this horrific crime than its victims, the four convicts have been filing petition after petition in an attempt to delay their execution.
In shocking scenes yesterday the convicts’ lawyer, AP Singh, bragged to Nirbhaya’s mother, Asha Devi that “the hanging will never happen”. Also yesterday the Supreme Court rejected Pawan Gupta’s claim of being a minor at the time of the attack; this was the second time the same petition had been filed in two weeks.
“How many times will we hear the same things, you have raised it already many times,” the court said, hearing the petition filed on Friday, the day a second date of execution was announced.
(With Agency Inputs ).
