SC Rejects Plea Of Nirbhaya Case Convict Who Claimed He Was Minor At Time Of Crime

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the petition of a Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case convict, Pawan Kumar Gupta, who had claimed he was a minor at the time of the commission of the offence in December 2012.

A bench, headed by Justice R Banumathi, also had Justices Ashok Bhushan and A S Bopanna, hearing the plea.

Gupta's counsel told the bench that the convict was minor at the time of the crime and the high court had wrongly dismissed the plea.

"On July 9, 2018, your (Pawan) petition was dismissed by this court, but now how come you are coming with some new information, how will this be maintainable?" Justice Ashok Bhushan observed.

The Delhi High Court had rejected the review petition of Pawan and he had challenged this before the apex court on January 17, Friday.

Pawan's date of birth as per school record is October 8, 1996, but the Delhi High Court had ignored this, Pawan's lawyer, AP Singh claimed in the petition.

The court said the claim of being a juvenile was not taken initially during the trial in the Nirbhaya case. However, Gupta's lawyer contended that it was taken as a 'mitigating circumstance' at the time of sentencing in the case.

Gupta had moved the apex court on Friday. He has also sought a direction restraining the authorities from executing the death penalty, scheduled for February 1.

A Delhi court on Friday issued fresh death warrants for February 1 against the four convicts -- Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Akshay Kumar Singh and Pawan -- in the case.

A 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people before she was thrown out on the road.