Nirbhaya case: Fresh death warrant to be issued against convicts today
A Delhi court on Thursday issued a fresh death warrant to all four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case. The order by the court states all four convicts to be hanged on March 20, at 05:30 am. The development comes after President Ram Nath Kovind had rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Gupta -- one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya case. Earlier on Wednesday, a plea was moved in a Delhi court, seeking fresh death warrant for the execution of the four convicts, contending that the convicts have exhausted all the legal remedies.
Additional Session Judge Dharmender Rana issued notice to the convicts seeking their response on the application and slated the matter for hearing at 2 pm today.
Public prosecutor advocate Irfan Ahmad, appearing for the state, sought the issuance of a fresh date for execution on Wednesday, saying that the convicts have exhausted all the legal remedies available to them.
"The only legal remedy available to Pawan Gupta has also been exhausted... As there is no legal remedy left, please issue a fresh date of execution today itself," he said.
The court on Monday, for the third time, had stayed the death sentence of four convicts in the case observing that they cannot be executed while a mercy petition is pending before the President.
The President has rejected the mercy petition of all the convicts in the case.
However, a "complete" mercy petition of convict Akshay Singh Thakur was recently filed claiming that the previous one, which was rejected by the President on February 5, did not have "complete facts".
Meanwhile, Pawan Gupta's curative petition seeking commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment was also dismissed by the Supreme Court on Monday.
Nirbhaya's mother hopeful of fresh death warrant for convicts
Meanwhile, Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi on Thursday contended that the convicts have exhausted all the legal remedies.
"The four convicts have exhausted all legal remedies. I hope that a fresh death warrant will be issued by the court today," she said.
On Monday, Asha Devi had thanked President Ram Nath Kovind for rejecting the mercy petition of Pawan Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in the case.
The case pertains to the brutal gang-rape and killing of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in Delhi. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.
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