Nirbhaya Gangrape Convicts To Be Hanged On December 16, Say Tihar Jail Sources

Nirbhaya gangrape and murder convicts will be hanged on December 16, the day of the heinous crime took place, reliable Tihar Jail sources told News Nation on Tuesday. The sources say that the authorities are following the ‘due procedure.’ News Nation has also learnt that Pawan Gupta, one of the convicts in the December 16 case, has been shifted from Mandoli jail to high-profile Tihar Jail. The sources, however, rejected that latest media reports about Buxar jail preparing the execution ropes for the December 16 convicts. The sources say that the reports about Buxar jail is untrue because the officials can’t issue such an order until the court has issued the ‘black warrant’. The sources also said that the ‘execution chamber’ located inside the jail No. 3 inside Tihar premises ‘is always ready’.

One of the accused Ram Singh had hanged himself in the jail and another, the juvenile, was convicted of rape and murder and given the maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment in a reform facility. On July 9 last year, the apex court dismissed the pleas of three convicts -- Mukesh (31), Pawan Gupta (24) and Vinay Sharma (25) -- seeking review of it 2017 verdict which upheld the capital punishment given to them by the Delhi High Court and the trial court in the case. The fourth death row convict, Akshay Kumar Singh (33), had not filed a review plea in the apex court.

Meanwhile, Vinay Sharma, one of the convicts facing the gallows in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case, has asked that the mercy plea in his name be withdrawn as he never authorised it. The convict claimed that the mercy plea sent to President Ram Nath Kovind by Union Home Ministry wasn't signed and authorized by him. The development comes a day after the victim's mother wrote to the president seeking dismissal of the clemency petition. Seeking to draw a parallel between the two cases, Nirbhaya's parents also said unlike them, the family of the deceased veterinary would not have to wait for justice.

In a letter written to Kovind, Nirbhaya's mother said the petition filed by one of the convicts, Vinay Sharma, "deliberately tries to avoid the execution of the death sentence and hamper the dissemination of justice".

"Almost seven years have lapsed since then. The trauma, pain and agony suffered by the applicant (mother) is unbearable and the wait for justice is getting longer and longer," the letter, sent through his lawyer, said.

The Union Home Ministry has sent to President Ram Nath Kovind the recommendation of the Delhi government rejecting the mercy plea of one of the convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya rape-murder case, sources said on Friday.

The Home Ministry has also recommended in the file rejection of the mercy petition of one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape-and-murder case, an official said.