The Patiala House District Court on Thursday will hear the plea filed by 2012 gang-rape and murder victim Nirbhaya’s parents for issuing fresh death warrants against four convicts.
The court on Tuesday had adjourned the hearing because one of the convict, Pawan Gupta, went unrepresented by any counsel.
The court offered Pawan Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, legal aid after the defense lawyer AP Singh said that he doesn’t represent convict Pawan Gupta anymore.
The court had directed AP Singh to immediately provide Pawan’s file to the new counsel. The judge asked the court staff to fetch the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DLSA) list of empanelled legal aid lawyers.
Pawan’s father informed the court that he’s not willing with engage a government lawyer. Assuring the father of legal aid, Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana asked the court staff to fetch the DLSA list of empanelled legal aid lawyers.
Public Prosecutor Irfan Ahmed had requested the court to turn down the request of providing new legal counsel to Pawan as he had exhausted all his legal remedies and none of his petitions were pending before any authority. To this, the judge responded by saying that even if convicts are engaging in delay tactics, we can only deal with it in accordance with the law. Even till his last breath, the convict is entitled to audi alteram partem (the other side be heard), the judge said.
Nirbhaya’s father had submitted before the court that giving a lawyer to Pawan at this stage would be a betrayal to Nirbhaya.
Nirbhaya’s mother said, “I am wandering here and there to get justice for my daughter and these convicts are using delaying tactics. I don’t know why the Court is not able to understand this.”
“What about my rights? I am standing with folded hands. Please issue the death warrant. I am also human. It’s been more than 7 years,” said Devi.
On Tuesday, the court had hasked the convicts to respond to the plea.
In their application, Nirbhaya’s parents submitted that the condemned prisoners were making a mockery of the law and frustrating the execution of the sentence.
The application was filed after the Supreme Court gave liberty to the authorities to approach the trial court for a fresh date for the hanging of the convicts.
On January 31, the trial court had stayed “till further orders” the execution of the four convicts in the case — Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31), who are lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail.
A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as ”Nirbhaya”, was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.
Six people, including the four convicts, Ram Singh and a juvenile — were named as accused.
Ram Singh, the prime accused, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in Tihar jail days after the trial began. The juvenile, who was said to be the most brutal of the attackers, was put in a correctional home for three years.
The juvenile was released in 2015 and sent to an undisclosed location amid concerns over a threat to his life. He, when released, was 20 years old.
The trial of the four adults began in a special fast-track court in March 2013 and they were sentenced to death in September 2013 by the trial court.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, convict Sharma approached the Supreme Court against the rejection of his mercy petition by the President.
Sharma, through his counsel A P Singh, also pleaded for the commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment.
President Ram Nath Kovind had on February 1 dismissed the mercy plea of Sharma.