Tihar Jail Asks 'Last Wish' Of Nirbhaya Convicts Ahead Of February 1st Hanging

What’s your last wish, who do you want to meet for last time – these are some of the questions that the Tihar Jail officials have reportedly asked the four Nirbhaya convicts on death row ahead of the February 1st execution. The questions are part of the pre-defined prison procedures. According to prison sources, the convicts were also asked whether they would like to leave their property to anyone. However, the sources added that none of the four convicts have replied to the questions posed by the Tihar officials.

Meanwhile, the Centre on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court urging to seeking modification of the Shatrughan Chauhan judgment on rights available to death row convicts. The plea seeks imposition of time limit to file curative petition after review is rejected and says the convict should file his or her mercy petition within seven days after black warrant is issued. Welcoming the government move, Asha Devi, the mother of Nirbhaya, said: “I want the Supreme Court should issue fresh guidelines for hanging the convicts.”

The Centre moved the apex court following the delay in execution of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, urging modification to the Shatrughan Chauhan judgment in 2014 regarding the right to legal relief for the sentenced convicts.

The Centre's move comes in the context of the pending executions of the death warrants of four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape-murder case.

A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital. Six people—Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta, Ram Singh and a juvenile—were named as accused.

On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected the plea of a death row convict in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case challenging the Delhi High Court order, which had dismissed his claim of being a juvenile at the time of the offence. A bench comprising Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bushan, and AS Bopanna dismissed the plea of convict Pawan Kumar Gupta and upheld the Delhi High Court verdict. The death-row convict in the Nirbhaya case had moved the top court on Friday. Pawan Gupta had also sought a direction restraining the authorities from executing the death penalty, scheduled for February 1. The bench said the claim of being a juvenile was not taken initially during trial in the Nirbhaya case. However, Gupta’s lawyer contended that it was taken as a ‘mitigating circumstance’ at the time of sentencing in the case.