A plea by the father of Nirbhaya Convict Pawan, assailing the credibility of the sole eye-witness of the incident, dismissed by Delhi High Court

Man alleged to have ‘Khalistani Links’ granted default bail by Delhi HC

Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code defines the action of committing rape to a woman by man or group. The incident which shocked the whole country was of Nirbhaya in the year 2012; its judgment came on 2017 to penalize them with Capital Punishment. Whereas, the death warrant issued against the four convicts came on 7th January 2020 by the Honourable Judge of Delhi High Court during the hearing of a plea which seeks a black warrant against four convicts, who are charged with murder and rape. An application was submitted by the Central Government in the Supreme Court to amend the guidelines made by the Supreme Court to reduce the fourteen days from delivery of death warrant to hanging the convict to seven days. Yesterday, a plea made by father of one of the convicts, where he doubted upon the credibility of eye-witness which he felt was wrong and fabricated. This application was filed, against the order which was passed on 6th January 2020 where the magistrate had rejected the testimony of sole eye-witness as false and fabricated. In the plea, the father did rely upon the tweets of Former MD of Hindi News Channel News 24 and India TV, wherein a sting operation was conducted on eye-witness. It was written on the tweet, the sting operation could have adversely affected the credibility of eye-witness’s testimony. The applicant did file an FIR in RK Puram Police Station but no action was taken which made them, to file plea before the magistrate under Section 156(3) of CrPc.

The plea moved to Delhi Court, of which the Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Kumar Jain declined the plea of the father, termed as desperate and malafide but refuse to impose any cost on the convict who is one step away from the gallows.  Later, it was mentioned that the convict is trying to stall the persecution through his father, which doesn’t have any locus. One of the convicts Mukesh Singh moved a plea on Saturday which challenged the rejection of Mercy Petition by President of India and this led to stay on the death warrant. There has been debate on the statement made by the Former Solicitor-General of India and Senior Advocate Indra Jaising, advised Nirbhaya’s mother to forgive those Convicts and turn their Capital Punishment into Life-Sentence to set an example. 

Key-Features:-

  • Revision plea was dismissed as it doesn’t contain any merit.
  • The court accepted the argument made by the public prosecutor and held the application is barred by Section 195(b) (i) of CrPc.
  • Convict is trying to stall the persecution.
  • Witness accumulated lakhs and crores from media houses.
  • Applicant wasn’t allowed to present his witness under Section 200 of CrPc.

Edited by J. Madonna Jephi

Approved & Published – Sakshi Raje

Reference