Nirbhaya case: Convict moves court for FIR against cops for alleged prison assault

Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, on Wednesday moved a Delhi court seeking registration of an FIR against two police constables for allegedly physically assaulting him when he was lodged at Mandoli jail last year.

The court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Karkardooma has fixed Pawan's complaint for hearing on Thursday at 2 PM, lawyer AP Singh, counsel for the condemned prisoner, said.

The complaint seeks a direction to the SHO of Harsh Vihar Police Station to register the FIR against constable Anil Kumar and another unidentified police constable.

The complaint said that since Pawan is to be hanged soon, it is necessary to allow him to appear as a witness for identifying both policemen.

The criminal complaint alleged that Pawan was badly beaten up by the two constables on July 26 and 29, 2019 when he was lodged in the Mandoli central jail in East Delhi.

It further said he was then treated at Guru Teg Bahadur government hospital in Shahdara for his alleged head injury and had received 14 stitches and seeks registration of the FIR against the two policemen under penal provisions relating to physical assault.

Earlier, on March 5, another Delhi court presided over by Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana had issued fresh black warrants for the execution of the four death row convicts including Pawan Kumar Gupta on March 20 at 5.30 am.

The death row convicts are Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31).

A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was gang raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in South Delhi on December 16, 2012. She died a fortnight after the incident.

Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused. Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail days after the trial began in the case.

The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.