Will file curative petition in SC, says Nirbhaya convicts' advocate

After a Delhi court issued death warrant against all four convicts in 2012 Nirbhaya Delhi gang-rape case, the convicts' lawyer AP Singh on Tuesday said that he will file a curative petition in the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the same.

"We will file a curative petition in the Supreme Court within two days. Five senior-most judges of the Supreme Court will hear it. There has been media, public and political pressure since the beginning, which is why an unbiased probe did not take place in this case," Singh told ANI.

He said that the curative petition will be filed on behalf of all four convicts, namely Akshay, Vinay, Pawan and Mukesh.

"The court has given us the time to file a curative petition. We will file the application seeking a stay on the death warrant and I am hopeful that the court will hear it," Singh said.

"Death sentence is for the poor of this country. No rich has ever been hanged," he added.

A Delhi court today said that all four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya case will be hanged at 7 am on January 22.

The court heard the plea of parents of the 2012 Delhi gang-rape victim seeking to expedite the procedure to hang all four convicted in the case and also seeking issuance of death warrant against them.

The court had on December 20 reserved the order on an application filed by Pawan Kumar Gupta's father till today. The petition had stated that the girl's friend committed perjury for giving false testimony in the court.

The sole eye-witness was accompanying the 23-year-old girl when she was raped and murdered by six men on a moving bus on December 16, 2012.

The main accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail during the trial. Another accused was a minor at the time of the commission of the crime and was sent to a reform facility and released after three years.

All the four convicts had earlier knocked at the doors of the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court order of March 2014 which had confirmed the capital punishment awarded to them by the trial court on September 13, 2013.

However, the top court also dismissed their appeals after finding no merit.