Nirbhaya Case: Delhi Court To Hear Plea Seeking Stay On Execution Of Convicts Tomorrow

A Delhi court on Wednesday has issued notice to Tihar Jail and prosecution (State) on convicts' plea seeking stay on their death sentence on the grounds of pendency of various legal applications, appeals & second mercy pleas. The court has said that it will take up the matter tomorrow. Earlier, the convicts moved Delhi Court seeking stay on sentence of the death penalty on the grounds of pendency of various legal applications, appeals and second mercy plea. The four convicts are scheduled to be hanged on 20th March, as per the death warrant.

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The wife of one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape case, who face the gallows later this week, has also filed a divorce petition before a court saying she does not wish to live with the label of being "a rapist's widow". Puneeta Devi, wife of Akshay Thakur, who hails from Nabinagar block in this central Bihar district, moved the family court on Tuesday and the petition is likely to come up for hearing on Thursday. According to her counsel, Mukesh Kumar Singh, there is a provision in law that a woman can seek divorce on the ground of her husband being charged with a sexual offence.

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Till recently, Thakur's wife had maintained that her husband was "innocent" and wrongly accused of involvement in the heinous gang rape that took place inside a moving bus in New Delhi on December 16, 2012 triggering nationwide outrage.