A Delhi court on Monday issued fresh death warrants for March 3 at 6 a.m. against all the four convicts in the December 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.
All convicts “to be hanged by the neck until they are dead on March 3, at 6 a.m.,” it said.
The order was passed by Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana pursuant to pleas by Tihar Jail and the victim’s parents, seeking issuance of a fresh date to hang them.
This is the third time the court is issuing death warrants against Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31). The trial court had issued the first death warrants for January 22, which was later postponed to February 1.
During the hearing on Monday, the court discharged advocate Vrinda Grover as counsel for Mukesh after he asked for a change of his advocate. It then appointed legal aid counsel advocate Ravi Qazi to represent him.
Mr. Qazi, who is already representing Pawan, said Pawan wanted to move curative and mercy petitions.
The court was also informed by convict Akshay’s counsel that in his earlier mercy petition, due to poverty and ignorance, the complete facts could not be brought before the President of India.
Counsel informed that convict Akshay had prepared a fresh mercy petition and the same would be moved before the President soon.
The victim’s parents and Tihar Jail moved the application after the Supreme Court granted liberty to the authorities to approach the trial court for issuance of a fresh date for the convicts' execution.
Except Pawan, all others had exhausted the legal remedies available to file a curative petition before the Supreme Court. The President has also rejected the mercy pleas of Singh, Kumar and Sharma.
The four were sentenced to death by a local court in 2013. The order has since been upheld by the High Court and the Supreme Court.
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