New Delhi
Hours before the scheduled hanging, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, Pawan Gupta, moved the Supreme Court on Thursday night challenging the rejection of his second mercy plea by the President.
The plea sought court's directions declaring that the rejection of the second mercy petition by the President on March 19 as unconstitutional and bad in law.
The plea claimed that there is further new evidence which shows that the state has concealed certain facts in the case from the court.
"The state had issued notice on February 26, 2017, to the principal of Pawan's school seeking all documents pertaining to his date of birth. It appears that this notice and its response have been kept from this court," it alleged.
The plea said that Pawan had specifically pointed to his school records and the date of birth recorded therein through the affidavit filed with the apex court in compliance with its orders of February 3, 2017.
"This order also made it clear that the prosecution is given liberty to put forth in the affidavit any reputation, after the copies of the affidavits by the counsel for the accused persons are served on him. For the said purpose, a week's time was granted. However, despite this opportunity, the status report filed in response to the petitioner's (Pawan) affidavit did not deny the petitioner's claim of being a juvenile on the date of the incident," the plea said.
The petition also sought commutation of his death sentence into life imprisonment.
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