Thursday, March 28, 2024
ADVT 
India

Nirbhaya Convicts Continue To Clutch At Law For Last-Minute Reprieve

17 Mar, 2020 10:11 PM
  • Nirbhaya Convicts Continue To Clutch At Law For Last-Minute Reprieve

Even as the D-Day approaches, the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case through their lawyers are clutching at all possibilities to apparently delay or stay the execution.

 

The hanging, scheduled for 5:30 a.m. on March 20, comes after a prolonged court battle spread across many years, and three postponements.


This time, the convicts, even though they have seemingly exhausted all the legal and constitutional remedies available, are leaving no stone unturned for a last-minute reprieve from the finality of the death sentence.


The attempts include endless petitions in courts, to the President of India and even to the International Court of Justice.


On Tuesday, barely three days before the hanging, advocate M.L. Sharma approached the Patiala House Court, on behalf of convict Mukesh, seeking quashing of the death penalty awarded to him, claiming the prosecution deliberately concealed certain documentary evidence to falsely implicate him and secure the death sentence.


However, the court dismissed the petition and pulled up the counsel for making "false averments". Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana observed, "I deem it appropriate that the conduct of the counsel (M.L. Sharma) for the convict needs to be brought to the notice of the Bar Council of India for appropriate sensitization exercise."


On Tuesday, convicts' counsel A.P. Singh, too, approached the National Human Rights Commission and the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the sentence.


While approaching the apex court with a second curative petition on behalf of convict Pawan claiming "juvenility", Singh also knocked on the doors of the NHRC, for a stay on the executions. He also demanded compensation for the minor son of another of the accused, Ram Singh, who had died while in custody during the trial.


Earlier, on Monday, four days to the hanging, three of the convicts -- Akshay, Pawan and Vinay -- approached the International Court of Justice praying for a stay on their execution questioning "life is going short to short, why death?".


On March 13, a week before the hanging, Vinay Sharma, one of the convicts, had approached the Delhi High Court alleging constitutional irregularities committed by the Delhi government in the recommendation of his mercy plea to the President.


Claiming that the advocates for the convicts are using delaying tactics, victim's counsel, Seema Kushwaha said, "They have not only used delaying tactics, but they also used their legal and constitutional remedies strategically at a snail's speed."


Responding to the allegations, advocate A.P. Singh, who represents convicts Akshay, Pawan and Vinay, said, "This case is a clear example that for truth, we need to fight through the system and the ones in power."


"All these applications and petitions are our legal remedies and the same are accessed through the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the reliefs, too, are granted through the same channel."


The Nirbhaya case pertains to the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl, called later as Nirbhaya, in the national capital in December 2012. Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused.


Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail days after the trial began in the case. The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.

MORE India ARTICLES

2nd COVID-19 Case In India’s Lucknow Linked To Doctor From Canada

A 20-year-old man, resident of Indiranagar, was shifted to the isolation ward of the King George’s Medical University (KGMU), on Saturday morning after the lab test confirmed the virus.    

2nd COVID-19 Case In India’s Lucknow Linked To Doctor From Canada

Woman Booked For Selling Her Daughter To Neighbour In UP

Woman Booked For Selling Her Daughter To Neighbour In UP
A woman has been booked for allegedly selling her seven-day-old daughter for Rs 10,000 to a neighbour at Kathghar area of Moradabad district in Uttar Pradesh.

Woman Booked For Selling Her Daughter To Neighbour In UP

COVID-19: This Iranian Evacuee Is Touched By EAM's Gesture

It was a usual morning for medicine students on the campus of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran on February 22. Little did they realise that novel coronavirus was manifesting its worst phase in the country.

COVID-19: This Iranian Evacuee Is Touched By EAM's Gesture

Delhi Gangrape Death Row Convicts Approach International Court Of Justice

The petition stated that the Tihar jail authorities were preparing the execution of the four death row convicts in a "hurried manner, such a hasty and secretive execution will be plainly illegal as above mentioned three convicts are yet to avail their legal remedy."  

Delhi Gangrape Death Row Convicts Approach International Court Of Justice

COVID-19 Scare Grips India, Death Toll Rises To 2

Two deaths have been confirmed in India after a 69-year-old woman died at RML hospital here died on Friday. Earlier, a man from Karnatak died on Thursday.

COVID-19 Scare Grips India, Death Toll Rises To 2

Former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah Freed, Says Won't Make Any Political Statement For Now

Hours after he was released from seven-month detention, former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah told reporters on Friday at his residence at Gupkar Raod in Srinagar that he is thankful to the people who prayed for his freedom, "but my freedom is incomplete until all those detained in Kashmir are released".    

Former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah Freed, Says Won't Make Any Political Statement For Now

PrevNext