Nirbhaya: Delhi court asks Tihar jail authorities for update on executions
A Delhi court on Thursday directed the authorities of Tihar jail to file a proper report by Friday about the status of the scheduled execution of four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.
Additional sessions judge Satish Kumar Arora passed the directive after the jail authorities said they have written to the Delhi government on the issue of pending remedies available to the death-row convicts.
The court was hearing a plea by one of the four convicts, Mukesh Kumar, seeking postponement of the execution on grounds that his mercy petition was pending with the president.
Mukesh Kumar's lawyer told the court that there were subsequent developments that necessitated setting aside the death warrants. He moved the trial court immediately after the Delhi High Court declined to entertain his plea to set aside the January 7 order issuing his death warrant and asked them to approach the lower court.
The 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted by six persons on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in south Delhi before being thrown out on the road. She died on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.
Earlier, the Lt Governor of Delhi recommended to the Union Home Ministry to reject the mercy petition of one of the convicts of the Nirbhaya gangrape case, officials said on Thursday.
Mukesh filed the mercy petition a few days ago.
“The Home Ministry has received the mercy petition from the LG recommending its rejection. The petition is being examined and an appropriate decision will be taken soon,” a Home Ministry official said.
The Delhi government on Wednesday recommended rejection of the mercy plea filed by Singh, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 gangrape and murder case, and forwarded it to the LG at “lightning speed”.
It also informed the high court during a hearing that execution of the convicts will not take place on January 22 as a mercy plea has been filed by Singh.
The four convicts — Singh (32) Vinay Sharma (26), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25) — were to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail. A Delhi court had issued their death warrants on January 7.
