Nirbhaya case | Convicts sob, refuse evening tea and try to harm themselves

Families have not informed officials that they will take the bodies

The convicts, Akshay Thakur, Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta. File

After all the four convicts in the Nirbhaya case got to know about their hanging on Friday morning, they started sobbing and refused evening tea on Thursday. The Tihar jail authorities held a meeting over the preparations and did a final trial run.

A Tihar jail officer said after the convicts were informed that the Delhi court had rejected the plea seeking a stay on the executions, they got restless and started sobbing. The convicts have been kept in separate wards.

“They tried to harm themselves but were stopped by jail staff. They have been put under surveillance and a counsellor was asked to talk to them. The jail staff have been instructed to keep a watch on them. In a shift pattern, jail staff will be stationed outside each ward to keep watch on their activity,” said the officer.

The officer said they are following the procedure as per the Tihar jail manual. The bodies will be shifted to the DDU hospital by 8 a.m. for post-mortem. The final meeting of the convicts with their family members had already happened except Akshay as no one had come to meet him.

The families have not informed the officials that they will take the bodies for cremation. If they refuse, Tihar will cremate them as per procedure, said the officer.

He said the money earned by the convicts during their stay in the jail would be handed over to their family members because they haven’t mentioned any beneficiary or signed any will.

Just before the convicts are taken to the gallows, the jail superintendent will visit the prisoner sentenced to death in his cell a few minutes before the hour fixed for execution. The Superintendent shall read over a translation of the warrant in vernacular to the prisoner. Any other documents requiring attestation by the prisoner, such as his will, shall thereafter be signed and attested in the presence of the Superintendent, said per jail manual.

The four convicts are set to be hanged at 5:30 a.m. in the Tihar jail.

Whenever an execution is carried out, all the other prisoners in the jail shall be locked up in their barrack till the body is removed, jail manual reads.