A Delhi court on Monday delayed till further orders execution of 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder convicts. Earlier during the day, convict Pawan Kumar Gupta filed plea to stay execution as he had filed a mercy petition before the President.
"As a cumulative effect of the above said discussion, I am of the opinion that the death sentence cannot be executed pending the disposal or the mercy petition of the convict," the court observed.
"Despite stiff resistance from the victim's side, I am of the opinion that any condemned convict must not meet his Creator with a grievance in his bosom that the courts of this country has not acted fairly in granting him an opportunity to exhaust his legal remedies," Additional Session Judge Dharmender Rana said.
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Rana, while reserving judgement on Pawan's fresh plea to stay the death warrant for Tuesday morning, had rapped the convict's lawyer for acting so late in filing the curative and mercy pleas.
Pawan's curative plea was rejected by the Supreme Court earlier in the day.
The trial court had earlier in the day dismissed Pawan's and Akshay Kumar Singh's applications for staying their death warrants.
However, Pawan's lawyer, AP Singh, said he has filed a mercy plea and execution ought to be stayed. The court, thereafter, asked him to come post lunch to argue his case.
In the post-lunch hearing, the court pulled up Singh saying, "You are playing with fire, you should be cautious" and added "one wrong move by anybody, and you know the consequences".
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Tihar authorities, during the hearing, said the ball is in the government's court, after filing of the mercy petition, and the judge has no role for now.
They said the President will seek a status report from the jail on Pawan's mercy plea and when that happens, it will suo motu stay the execution.
