Death warrant in Nirbhaya case delayed

Advocate AP Singh withdraws his ‘vakalatnama’ for 25-year old Pawan Gupta

In a new development in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, Advocate AP Singh on Wednesday withdrew his “vakalatnama” for 25-year old Pawan Gupta, one of the four convicts, and a Delhi court on Wednesday refused to take up the applications of Delhi government and the victim’s parents to issue a death warrant.

Additional Sessions judge Dharmender Rana told the Delhi government to move its application later as he said any condemned convict is entitled to avail legal aid till his last breath and he cannot proceed without hearing Pawan’s case. He, however, fixed further hearing on Thursday at 3 PM.

The judge gave Pawan the “liberty” to choose his counsel from the list of the empanelled advocates of the

Delhi State Legal Service Authority and ordered Advocate Singh to hand over all papers concerning Pawan to the new lawyer he chooses.

Though he fixed the hearing on Thursday, the judge indicated that no order on hanging will come since he observed that the new lawyer assigned to Pawan will need time to study the papers.

Pawan is the only convict who had neither availed the remedy of curative petition in the top court or mercy petition to the President. Three others have already exhausted all remedies and await the date for the gallows.

On Asha Devi, mother of the victim, crying in the court room and her lawyers asserting that the convicts are adopting all kinds of delay tactics to avoid execution of death warrant, the judge firmly asserted that the hearing would become superfluous and ornamental ‘without hearing the counsel of convict.’ He hoped the new lawyer of Pawan is able to ready to argue the case on Thursday.

Advocate AP Singh said he withdrew from Pawan’s case since he did not get his fee and he is not in the court doing any charity. He continues to represent the other three convicts, he added.