Top Court To Hear Nirbhaya Convict's Plea Against Rejection Of Mercy Petition Today

Ahead of the February 1st execution, the Supreme Court will hear the plea of one of Nirbhaya convicts against the rejection of his mercy plea on Tuesday. Death row convict Mukesh Singh had filed a plea in the top court saying that the President of India had not paid enough attention to his plea and rejected it outrightly. While agreeing for urgent hearing, Chief Justice of India Shard Arvind Bobde said, “If somebody is going to be executed on February 1, it is top priority." The Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India asked the convict’s counsel to approach the mentioning officer as the hanging is scheduled on February 1. The bench also comprised Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant. The warrant for execution of death sentence for the four convicts in the case has been fixed on February 1 at 6 am.

On Saturday, advocate Vrinda Grover, who is representing Singh said that, "A petition has been filed under Article 32 for judicial review of the manner of rejection of the mercy petition in terms of the judgement of Supreme Court in Shatrughan Chauhan case." The development came after the Centre moved the Supreme Court urging to seeking modification of the Shatrughan Chauhan judgment on rights available to death row convicts.

The Supreme Court recently dismissed the curative petitions of other two convicts—Vinay and Mukesh Singh (32). Mukesh’s mercy petition was rejected by the President earlier this month. The 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people before she was thrown out on the road. She was flown to a hospital in Singapore where she died.

Meanwhile, a dummy execution of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case was performed at Tihar Jail on Monday, prison officials said. This was the third instance of the jail authorities performing the dummy execution in order to test the equipment which will be used to hang the convicts, they said. The procedure was carried out in the afternoon and will be repeated over the next few days, the officials said, adding that the ropes were procured from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.

The dummies were created using sacks filled with wheat and sand as per the weight of the convicts, a senior jail official said.