New Delhi, March 4, 2020-
After President Ram Nath Kovind rejected here on Wednesday the mercy plea of the 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder case convict Pawan Gupta, Nirbhaya’s parents have demanded immediate implementation of the capital punishment awarded in the case.
Welcoming the rejection, Seema Samriddhi Kushwaha, counsel of Nirbhaya’s parents, told, “It was not their lawyer A.P. Singh who was saving the four convicts, but the lacuna in the law.”
She said they were now expecting fresh death warrants as the convicts had exhausted all the legal remedies.
Jitendra Jha, another counsel of Nirbhaya’s parents, said there was no ground left for any delay in execution of the death penalty. “We will move the court to set the new date within seven days,” said Jha.
Nirbhaya’s parents expressed the hope for early closure of the case. The convicts were exploiting loopholes in the law for delaying execution of the death penalty.
“We have faith in the Constitution and the law. They filed mercy petition as per the right given by the law and the Constitution. It’s in the last phases now,” BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri told on the delay in the case.
The first date of execution of the four convicts, January 22, was postponed to February 1. Then the trial court on January 31 stayed the execution till further orders as the convicts had not exhausted their legal remedies.
The court on February 17 directed that the four be hanged at 6 a.m. on March 3. It was the third date of execution of the death warrants.
The four convicts, along with two others – one of them a minor, and the other committed suicide – had gang-raped and tortured the young woman on December 16, 2012 night. She died on December 29 at a hospital in Singapore. (Agency)
