Delhi court rejects review plea of Nirbhaya case convict Pawan Gupta’s father

A Delhi Court on Monday (January 27) dismissed the review petition filed by father of one of the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case convicts, Pawan Gupta, challenging magistrate order which dismissed the application questioning the credibility of the sole witness in this case. In his plea, Pawan's father had also claimed that the sole witness was tutored and his statements were credible.

Earlier on Monday, Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi had expressed confidence that Court will reject the appeal of the convicts and their efforts to delay the hanging will fail.

In a related development, another convict Mukesh Kumar Singh on Monday filed a plea before the SC seeking urgent hearing on his plea against dismissal of his mercy petition by the President Ram Nath Kovind. It is to be noted that the mercy plea of Mukesh, 32, was dismissed by President Kovind on January 17.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said, "If somebody is going to be hanged then nothing can be more urgent than this" and asked Kumar's counsel to approach the mentioning officer as the hanging is scheduled on February 1.

The bench also comprised justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant. Notably, the warrant for the hanging of all four convicts in Nirbhaya case has been fixed on February 1 at 6 am. Singh had approached President Kovind for mercy plea after his curative petition against his conviction and death sentence was dismissed by the top court.

On January 25 (Saturday), the lawyer of one of the convicts Vinay Sharma had told the Delhi's Patiala House Court that his client was being slow poisoned and was hospitalised, adding that his medical reports were not supplied. 

Advocate AP Singh made the claims during the court hearing. Singh had filed an application in the Patiala court accusing the Tihar Jail administration of causing a delay in filing mercy petitions for the convicts, by holding on certain documents. Singh moved an application on January 24 alleging that the jail authorities are yet to give the documents which are required to file the mercy petition for Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and curative petitions for Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Singh (25).

On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people. All the six accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. One of the accused was a minor and appeared before a juvenile justice court, while another accused committed suicide in Tihar Jail.