Nirbhaya convicts will not be hanged on Feb 1
IRA JHA/
NEW DELHI : With just 12 hours ahead of the much-anticipate execution of the four convicts in 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, a Delhi court on Friday once again directed the Tihar Jail authorities not to execute the death warrants issued against the convicts.
The execution was scheduled for Saturday at 6 am. According to recent development, the execution of the convicts have been postponed till further orders.
Convicts Pawan Gupta, Mukesh Singh, Akshay Singh and Vinay Sharma will not be hanged until further court orders. Their death sentence has already been put off once in a haze of review, curative and mercy petitions. “The death warrant has been cancelled and no new date has been given,” said the lawyer of one of the convicts, AP Singh.
Nirbhaya’s mother wept as she said that a convict’s lawyer had “challenged” her in court. “He challenged me…he said there would be no hanging,” she told reporters after an excruciating day waiting in courts. Taking advantage of a legal system that the government says is skewed, the convicts filed multiple petitions to stall their hanging.
A new petition was filed today before the Supreme Court and rejected. Pawan Gupta’s claim of being a minor at the time of the 2012 gang-rape and killing was dismissed by the Supreme Court for the second time in two weeks. He had asked the court to review its decision last week, even though he had been told that once rejected, an age claim cannot be contested repeatedly.
But it is the mercy petition filed by convict Vinay Sharma that secured today’s reprieve. Even if the President rejects it today, the convict has to be given 14 days till execution, under the rules.
Given the pattern, on the 13th day, another convict will file a mercy petition. On the government’s request on January 22 for a change in the rules to prevent convicts from “playing with the law”, the Supreme Court today agreed to consider amendments that were more considerate towards the victims and their families.
The government has suggested a time limit for the convicts to use their legal options so their death sentence is not delayed endlessly.
(With Agency Inputs ).
