Nirbhaya Convicts To Be Executed In Jail No. 3, Tihar To Seek Services Of Meerut Hangman

The four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case will be executed in Jail No 3, a senior Tihar Jail official said on Tuesday, hours after a Delhi court issued death warrants against them and declared that they will be hanged at 7 am on January 22. Three of the convicts are lodged in Jail No 2, while one is in Jail No 4, the official said.

Sources said the jail authorities will approach the Uttar Pradesh prison authority asking for a hangman from Meerut to carry out the executions.

The four convicts -- Mukesh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) -- will be kept in isolated cells and will not be allowed to interact with other prisoners. Their family members, however, can visit them any time, the official said.

The safety of the convicts will be taken care of by the prison authorities and doctors will conduct regular check-ups to keep a check on their physical and mental health, he added.

According to the official, the four will be executed in Jail No 3 and the ropes which will be used for hanging them will be brought from Bihar.  He said the prison authorities are waiting to receive the court order.

Asked if the four would be hanged together, he said "it is possible".

Nirbhaya, a 23-year-old paramedic student, was gang-raped and brutalised on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, inside a moving bus in south Delhi by the four men, including two others, before being dumped on the road.

She died on December 29, 2012, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. Of the six persons convicted, one allegedly committed suicide in jail and another, a juvenile, was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.

Mukesh, Pawan, Vinay and Akshay can still move a curative petition before the top court. With no hangman in Tihar, the sources said, the Tihar authorities will again write to the prison authority of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh to provide a hangman.

"We had earlier written to the prison authority of Uttar Pradesh seeking services of a hangman from Meerut. Now that the death warrant has been issued, we will be writing to the prison authority again, seeking the services of a hangman," they said.

When contacted, Jail Superintendent of Meerut prison V P Pandey said he has not received any letter for sending a hangman for carrying out the executions.

"Last month, we got a letter to keep Pawan Jallad ready but there is no fresh communication. The Delhi court warrants were issued only this evening, maybe we will get the letter for sending him tomorrow (Tuesday)," he said.