A Delhi court on Friday issued a fresh death warrants against the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape-murder case, shortly after the president rejected the mercy petition of one of them. The four convicts, who are lodged in Tihar jail, will be hanged at 6 am on February 1.
The court also turned down a plea filed by one of the convicts, Mukesh Singh, to postpone the execution. "This case presents a scenario when convicts were given the opportunity to file mercy but only one preferred. There might be delay tactics. For how long will this go on? Had death warrant not been issued, the convicts would not have initiated their legal remedies," said additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora.
On January 7, the court had issued death warrants against Mukesh (32), Vinay Sharma (26), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25), ordering their execution on January 22. Following this, Mukesh and Vinay filed curative petitions in the Supreme Court, which were rejected.
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On Friday, President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition of Mukesh and the home ministry sent it to the Delhi government for the dissemination of information to prison authorities.
After Kovind trashed the mercy plea, the Tihar jail authorities sought issuance of fresh death warrants against the four convicts.
According to the Delhi government, the Prison Rules mandate a buffer period of 14 days between the day of the rejection of the mercy petition and the day of execution. The jail authorities have made preparations and staged mock hanging sessions using sandbags with new ropes.
The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was gangraped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.
The brutality of the crime shook the nation, leading to country-wide protests and a change in India's rape laws.
With inputs from PTI
