Nirbhaya Case: Vinay Sharma Now Approaches Delhi LG, Urges to Turn His Death Penalty Into Life Sentence

Sharma filed a petition, with the help of his lawyer AP Singh, under Sections 432 and 433 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and sought commutation of his death penalty into a life imprisonment sentence.

New Delhi: In yet another effort to defer the date for execution in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case, Nirbhaya convict Vinay Sharma on Monday approached Lieutenant Governor of Delhi seeking to turn his death penalty into life imprisonment. Currently, all four Nirbhaya convicts — Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay and Pawan — are scheduled to be hanged on March 20.

Sharma filed a petition, with the help of his lawyer AP Singh, under Sections 432 and 433 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and sought commutation of his death penalty into a life imprisonment sentence. Earlier this month, convict Pawan Gupta had also filed a curative in Delhi’s Patiala House Court seeking his death sentence be changed to life imprisonment.

Gupta’s plea had caused the court to issue fresh death warrants for the four accused, delaying the execution for the third time. Last week, Mukesh Singh moved the Supreme Court seeking restoration of all his legal remedies.

As it stands, the four death row convicts will be hanged at 5:30 AM on March 20 after Delhi’s Patiala House Court issued another death warrant on Tihar Jail’s request.

While it was deemed that nothing could go wrong this time, there is now a possibility of yet another roadblock in the Nirbhaya case that has been going on for seven long years.