Finally, Nirbhaya convicts will be hanged tomorrow at 5.30 am. Convicts Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) will be hanged in Tihar Jail in New Delhi on Friday, (March 20). On March 5 this year, a trial court had issued a death warrant with March 20 as the date. On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as ''Nirbhaya'' (fearless), was gang-raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died after a fortnight.
There was anger and frustration everywhere as Nirbhaya convicts used legal remedies one by one even after their conviction. Each of the convicts chose to file mercy petitions before President Ram Nath Kovind differently. This delayed the actual hanging of the rapists. They also chose to file curative petitions before courts one by one, further delaying the process.
On Thursday, Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana in Patiala House Court in New Delhi dismissed the pleas of Akshay Kumar, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma seeking stay on the death penalty, saying the second mercy plea of one of them was still pending.
The court was informed by the public prosecutor that second mercy pleas of Akshay and Pawan, were rejected on the ground that the first such plea was entertained and considered on merit.
He told the court that advocate A P Singh, counsel for the convicts, was giving false information stating second mercy plea of Pawan was pending and said that all the convicts have exhausted their legal remedies.
Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused in Nirbhaya Gangrape case. Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail days after the trial began in the case.
The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.
(With PTI inputs)
