Nirbhaya: Govt challenges stay on execution, HC reserves verdict

New Delhi, February 2

The Delhi High Court on Sunday reserved its verdict on the Centre’s plea challenging the stay on the execution of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.

Justice Suresh Kait said it would pass an order after all parties concluded their arguments. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the high court that there was a “deliberate, calculated and well-thought-out design” by the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case convicts to “frustrate” the mandate of law by getting their execution delayed.

Mehta told Justice Suresh Kait that convict Pawan Gupta’s move of not filing a curative or a mercy petition was deliberate. The four Nirbhaya case convicts were playing with judicial machinery and trying the patience of the nation, he said. The high court was hearing the Centre’s plea challenging the stay on the execution of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya case.

Advocate AP Singh appeared for convicts Akshay Singh (31), Vinay Sharma (26) and Pawan gupta (25) opposing the Centre’s plea to set aside the stay on the execution of the death sentence.

Senior advocate Rebecca John, representing the fourth convict Mukesh Kumar (32), raised preliminary objection to the Centre’s plea, saying it was not maintainable.

She contended that the Centre was never a party in the case proceedings before the trial court and while the government was accusing the convict of delay, it had woken up just two days ago.

“It was the victim’s parents who had moved the trial court for issuance of death warrants against the convicts. At no point the government approached the trial court to get the death warrants issued immediately,” John contended.

He told the HC that the Centre had moved a plea in the Supreme Court seeking clarification whether co-convicts could be executed separately. A 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012. — PTI

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