PUNE: The Principal District and Sessions Judge (PDSJ) here on Wednesday, in a Supreme Court (SC) driven exercise, directed the Pune police to establish the veracity of seven original documents furnished by a death row convict in the 1994 Rathi multiple murders in support of his claim that he was a juvenile at the time of the offence.The police have to furnish their verification report to the court in a week. On January 29, the SC had passed an order giving six weeks to the PDSJ, Pune, to decide the juvenility claim of convict Narayan, alias Niranaram Chetanram Chaudhary, and furnish a report.In pursuance of this order, PDSJ S B Agrawal summoned district government pleader Ujjwala Pawar and a senior officer from the Kothrud police for a hearing on Wednesday. Chaudhary, too, was produced before the court after he was brought to Pune from the Nagpur central jail on a transfer warrant.Chaudhary’s lawyer, Harshad Nimbalkar, furnished the seven original documents in relation to the juvenility claim to the court. “The PDSJ also accepted in principle the photo copies of four other documents, which we are relying on, and the originals of these documents will be furnished soon,” Nimbalkar told TOI. “The Pune court directed that Chaudhary will remain in the Yerawada central jail till the matter is decided. The court will conduct a day-to-day hearing from March 1 as the six week time ends around March 15,” he added.Government pleader Pawar said, “A police officer will visit the convict’s native state of Rajasthan for verifying the documents.”A senior Pune police officer, who did not wish to be named, said, “We have deputed an assistant police inspector for carrying out the verification process by visiting the places concerned in Rajasthan. The convict has furnished his school leaving certificate, gram panchayat record, Sassoon hospital’s medical examination documents and Parivar (family) card issued by the Rajasthan government, among other documents.”In 2015, then President Pranab Mukherjee had rejected the mercy petitions of Chaudhary and Jeetendra alias Jeetu Nayansingh Gehlot, the other death row convict in the case. The two were since lodged in the Nagpur central jail.Chaudhary filed a criminal miscellaneous petition (CMP) in the SC on October 29, 2018, seeking a review of the Apex court’s final order of November 24, 2000 dismissing a review petition and confirming his death sentence. He claimed that he was a juvenile on the date of the offence.He claimed, the facts relating to his age could never be brought on record as the documents he has now relied on were not available with him during the trial by the Pune sessions court and the appeals in the Bombay high court and the SC.

Stay updated with all the Pune Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.