Nirbhaya Case: Convict Pawan Kumar Gupta Claims He Was Juvenile In 2012, High Court To Hear Matter Today

One of the four convicts awarded death penalty in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case approached the Delhi High Court on Wednesday claiming that he was a juvenile at the time of the offence in December, 2012. The plea filed by convict Pawan Kumar Gupta is listed for hearing on Thursday before Justice Suresh Kumar Kait.

Seeking to be declared a juvenile at the time of occurrence of the incident, Pawan alleged that his ossification test was not conducted by the investigating officers and claimed benefit under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. He said in his plea that the provision of section 7A of JJ Act lays down that a claim of juvenility may be taken before any court and it shall be recognised at any stage, even after final disposal of the case.

Pawan, who was awarded death sentence and lodged in Tihar jail, sought that the concerned authority be directed to conduct his ossification test to ascertain his claim of juvenility.

Besides Pawan, the other three convicts in the case are Mukesh, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Kumar Singh.

A 23-year-old paramedic student was gang raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 in a moving bus in south Delhi by six persons before she was thrown out on the road. She died on December 29, 2012 at a hospital in Singapore.

A juvenile involved in the crime was convicted by a juvenile justice board and released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.