Nirbhaya’s parents request that the four convicted men in the 2012 gang-rape and murder of their daughter should be hanged immediately, however the Delhi Court said their plea cannot be taken before 18th December 2019. The court said this because a petition filed by one convict is being heard by the Supreme Court of India. The convict is seeking review on his death sentence given in 2013 and upheld by Delhi High Court in 2014.
The parents demanded that the four convicts should be hanged on the 16th of December, the same date when their 23 year old daughter was not just gang raped in a private moving bus but tortured and mutilated with an iron rod and then dumped on the road naked and bleeding in 2012. The woman, who was given the alias of “Nirbhaya”, died 2 weeks later in a hospital in Singapore.
Six people were convicted, one of them was a minor and was released after he completed his sentence of 3 years in a Juvenile Reform facility, another one (Ram Singh) committed suicide in Tihar Jail in 2013 before a fast track court even sentenced death in September that year. After the convicts appealed against Fast Track Court’s judgement, Delhi High Court in 2014 upheld the judgement as it found the convicts guilty.
It is said, on the 18th of December, Wednesday, all four convicts will be produced in court via video conferencing. Last week Vinay Sharma, one of the convicts, withdrew his mercy petition before the President whereas Akshay Singh has filed a petition in the Supreme Court, however, the apex court, earlier, had already rejected similar petitions filed by other convicts, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, and Mukesh Singh.
When the public prosecutor argued in the court that a “Death Warrant” can be issued for the convicts even when a legal process in underway, the court said “we are not waiting for the convicts to file a curative petition but when now the review Petition is already pending in the Supreme Court, it will have to wait”.
Supreme Court will hear the convict’s mercy petition on Tuesday, 17th December, and will also hear Nirbhaya’s mother in the same hearing.
Nirbhaya’s mother has also filed a plea asking the Supreme Court and the government to execute the convict’s hanging immediately. Yesterday she had said “It has been two and a half years since the Supreme Court passed the order on their conviction and 18 months since their review petitions were dismissed. I have appealed to the court and government to hang them immediately”.
She added “The (Supreme) court should hear the review petition however the petition should have been dismissed earlier. We have no option but to accept the Supreme Court’s decision. We have been struggling for seven years”.
As of now, all the four convicts are in Tihar Jail, Delhi, and according to reports the prison officials has started with the process of hangings.
