SC to hear Nirbhaya gangrape convict Pawan's plea on juvenile claim

The Supreme Court (SC) will on Monday (January 20) hear a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by one of the Nirbhaya gangrape-murder convicts, Pawan Kumar Gupta, claiming that he was a juvenile when he committed the crime in 2012 and this fact was not taken into account by Delhi High Court during the proceedings in the case.

It is to be noted that Pawan had filed the same plea in the Delhi High Court too but it was rejected by the court. On January 17 (Friday), Pawan had approached the apex court challenging the Delhi High Court order in this case.

Pawan`s lawyer A P Singh has claimed in the petition that his client's date of birth as per school record is October 8, 1996, but this fact was ignored by Delhi High Court. The SLP will be heard by a three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice R Banumathi and Justices Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna. 

Meanwhile, a fresh death warrant has been issued by the Patiala House Court on Friday for the hanging of four Nirbhaya rape and murder convicts on February 1 at 6 am. The hanging of all the four convicts will take place at the same time in Delhi's Tihar jail.

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Reacting to the latest development, Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi on Friday said that the sensitive issue was being politicised. "The government can`t see our pain. I lost my daughter seven years ago I want justice," Asha Devi told Zee News. She has alleged foul play in the case and that the execution of four convicts was deliberately being delayed.

 Four convicts, Vinay, Akshay, Pawan and Mukesh were convicted and sentenced to death for raping the 23-year-old victim in a moving bus in the national capital on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012.