National News
On 3rd March as Delhi Court Issues Fresh Death Warrants for Nirbhaya Case Convicts to be Hanged.
This is the third time that death warrants have been issued in the Nirbhaya case, after the previous two were stayed because of pending legal options of the convicts.
New Delhi: A Delhi court has issued fresh death warrants against the four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder case and set a new date for their hanging: March 3 at 6am.
This is the third time that death warrants have been issued, after the previous two were stayed because of pending legal options of the convicts – Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Kumar. Reacting to the verdict, victim’s mother Asha Devi told News18 that she hoped this date is final. “I am satisfied with this verdict. (I) never lost faith. Finally, we have another date and (I) hope they’ll be hanged,” she said outside the court premises.
Additional Session Judge Dharmender Rana at the Patiala House court set the date for the execution after the Supreme Court granted liberty to the authorities to approach the trial court for issuance of a fresh death warrant as all legal remedies moved by the convicts were disposed of.During the hearing, the counsel of one of the convicts – Pawan Gupta – told the court that he wanted to move a curative petition before the Supreme Court and the mercy plea against the death sentence before the President.
Gupta is the only one among the four convicts who has not yet filed the curative petition – the last legal remedy available to a person, which is decided in-chamber. He also has the option of filing a mercy plea.The court had earlier in the day reserved the order after hearings during which Mukesh Singh told the court that he does not want to be represented by advocate Vrinda Grover. The court then appointed advocate Ravi Qazi to represent Mukesh.
The court was also informed that another death row convict, Vinay Sharma, is on hunger strike in Tihar jail. Vinay was assaulted in jail and has head injuries, his lawyer told the court, adding that he was suffering from acute mental illness and hence the death sentence cannot be carried out. The court directed the Tihar jail superintendent to take appropriate care of Vinay as per law.
Akshay Kumar’s counsel informed court that he has prepared fresh mercy petition to be moved before the President, as the previous one prepared by his parents “was incomplete.”
The case pertains to the gang-rape and brutalising 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. She died at a Singapore hospital a few days later. One of the five adults accused, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail during the trial of the case.
