New Delhi: The four convicts in the sensational 2012 Nirbhaya Gang rape and murder case will be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail, a Delhi court said on Tuesday.
The order was pronounced by Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora who issued the death warrants against the four death row convicts — Mukesh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31).
During the hearing, the prosecution said there was no application pending before any court or the President right now by any of the convicts and the review petition of all the convicts was dismissed by the Supreme Court.
While urging the court to issue the death warrants, the prosecution said, “In between the issuance and the execution of death warrants, if the convicts want to file curative petitions, they can do so.”
The counsel for two of the convicts — Mukesh and Vinay — said they were in the process of filing curative petition in the Supreme Court.
When the hearing commenced, advocate ML Sharma appeared before the court and said that he was representing Mukesh. However, amicus curiae Vrinda Grover, who on the last date was appointed by the court to represent Mukesh, said Sharma had no authority to represent him.
The court heard the arguments from both of them and directed Sharma to produce Vakalatnama (document empowering lawyer) showing that Mukesh authorised him.
After the court reserved the order for 3.30 pm on issuance of death warrants, Mukesh’s mother entered the court room crying and urged the court to show mercy. The court refused to entertain her. Talking to reporters outside the courtroom, she said her son was framed because he was poor.
The court interacted with all the convicts through video conferencing from Tihar jail. The media was not allowed inside the video conferencing room.
After the court passed the order, the lawyers and family members of the convicts came out and informed the media about court’s order. Victim’s parents said they were satisfied with the order.
The trial court had earlier directed Tihar jail authorities to seek within a week response from the four death row convicts as to whether they were filing mercy pleas against their executions with the President of India. It was hearing the applications moved by Nirbhaya’s parents and the prosecution (Delhi government) seeking issuance of death warrant against the convict.
The Supreme Court on December 18 had dismissed the plea of Akshay seeking review of its decision, saying review petition is not “re-hearing of appeal over and over again” and it had already considered the mitigating and aggravating circumstances while upholding the death penalty.
The 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in Delhi by six persons before being thrown out. She died on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. On July 9 last year, the apex court had dismissed the review pleas filed by the other three convicts in the case, saying no grounds have been made out by them for review of the 2017 verdict.
One of the six accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail here.
A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board and was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.
The top court in its 2017 verdict had upheld the capital punishment awarded to them by the Delhi High Court and the trial court.
The four convicts will be executed in Jail No 3, a senior Tihar Jail official said on Tuesday, hours after a Delhi court issued death warrants against them and declared that they will be hanged at 7 am on January 22.
Three of the convicts are lodged in Jail No 2, while one is in Jail No 4, the official said.
Sources said the jail authorities will approach the Uttar Pradesh prison authority asking for a hangman from Meerut to carry out the executions.
The four convicts will be kept in isolated cells and will not be allowed to interact with other prisoners. Their family members, however, can visit them any time, the official said.
The safety of the convicts will be taken care of by the prison authorities and doctors will conduct regular check-ups to keep a check on their physical and mental health, he added.
According to the official, the four will be executed in Jail No 3 and the ropes which will be used for hanging them will be brought from Bihar.
He said the prison authorities are waiting to receive the court order. Asked if the four would be hanged together, he said “it is possible”.
With no hangman in Tihar, the sources said, the Tihar authorities will again write to the prison authority of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh to provide a hangman.
“We had earlier written to the prison authority of Uttar Pradesh seeking services of a hangman from Meerut. Now that the death warrant has been issued, we will be writing to the prison authority again, seeking the services of a hangman,” they said.
When contacted, Jail Superintendent of Meerut prison VP Pandey said he has not received any letter for sending a hangman for carrying out the executions. (PTI)
