Nirbhaya Case: Hangman Pawan Reaches Tihar Jail, Conducts Dummy Execution

Pawan Jallad, a hangman from the Meerut Prison, conducted a dummy execution of the Nirbhaya case convicts at Tihar jail premises on Friday, officials said. Pawan reported to the Tihar Jail administration on Thursday, they said. The four convicts in the 2012 gangrape-and-murder case are scheduled to be hanged on February 1, but their execution is unlikely to happen as one of them filed a mercy petition before the President on Wednesday. 

"The dummy practice was conducted by Pawan and it passed very smoothly," said Deputy General, Tihar Prisons, Sandeep Goel.

A third-generation hangman, Pawan will stay on the jail premises and check the strength of rope and other things related to the execution.

Meanwhile, a Delhi court on Friday reserved its order on an application of three death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case seeking a stay on their execution on February 1. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana reserved the order after completion of hearing of arguments of the Tihar jail authorities and the convicts' lawyer.

Saying only one convict's plea is pending and the others can be hanged, Tihar Jail authorities challenged the application of three condemned prisoners in the case seeking a stay on their execution.

The convicts' lawyer disagreed with the jail authorities and said rules dictate that when one convict's plea is pending the others cannot be hanged.

Advocate A P Singh, representing the convicts -- Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Kumar - urged the court to adjourn the executions "sine die" (with no appointed date for resumption). Vinay's mercy plea before the president is pending.

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The fourth person sentenced to death in the case is Mukesh Kumar, whose mercy plea was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17. The appeal against the rejection was thrown out by the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The trial court on January 17 issued black warrants for the second time for the execution of all the four convicts in the case in Tihar jail at 6 am on February 1. Earlier, on January 7, the court had fixed January 22 as the hanging date.

The curative petitions of Vinay and Akshay have been rejected by the apex court. Pawan is the only one yet not to file a curative plea. Convicts have the option of moving a mercy petition before the president only after the apex court dismisses their curative plea.

A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who came to be known as "Nirbhaya" (the fearless one) was gangraped 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.