Nirbhaya Case: Today, the Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, countered the claims made on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that they are responsible for the delay in executions of the 4 convicts in the Nirbhaya case. He said that the AAP government “hardly had any role in” the executions of the convicts, and the paperwork that were needed from the Delhi Government were “Completed within hours”.
Arvind Kejriwal made the statement soon after Nirbhaya’s mother, Asha Devi criticised the government saying, “those people who held protests on streets in 2012, today the same people are only playing with my daughter’s death for political gains”.
Delhi’s CM said “All the work that was under the Delhi government was completed by us within hours… we never delayed any work related to this case. Delhi government hardly has any role in it. We want convicts to be hanged at the earliest”.
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Earlier today, Asha Devi pleaded the government for justice for her daughter, she said, “Those who attacked my daughter are being given a thousand options, but we have no rights?”.
Yesterday, Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change commented on AAP as he claimed that the execution of the convicts in the Nirbhaya Case was delayed owing to the “negligence” from the Delhi Government.
In a news conference, Javadekar said “AAP is responsible for the delay in justice. Why did Delhi government not give notice to the convicts for filing mercy plea in last 2.5 years?”.
Replying to Javadekar, Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister, Manish Sisodia said “Javadekar ji, police is under you (Central government), responsibility of law and order is under you (Central government), home ministry is under you (Central government), Tihar DG and administration is under you (Central government) and you are blaming us. Please don’t stoop so low on a sensitive issue”.
On Wednesday, the AAP led Delhi government told the Delhi High Court that the 4 convicts in the Nirbhaya Case could not be hanged of the earlier set date of 22nd January 2020 by a trial court. The reason they cited was that none of them had filed a mercy petition in front of Ram Nath Kovind, President of India.
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According to the law, any convict on death row cannot he executed until they have used all the legal course available to him/her.
Rahul Mehra, advocate representing Delhi Government said “The fate of a death convict comes to finality only after his mercy plea is rejected by the President”.
The prosecution claims that convicts are deliberately postponing the inevitable by filing curating and mercy petitions in stages. He described it as “frustrating” the legal process.
Today, the President of India rejected the mercy plea of Mukesh Singh, one of the four convicts. However, the other 3 convicts still have a chance to file their petitions. And as per the law, any convict can only be executed 14 days after his/her mercy plea has been rejected.
On the 16th of December, 2020, Nirbhaya, a medical student boarded a bus in South Delhi with her male friend to go back to her home, but on the bus she was gang raped by 6 people and her body was mutilated before being dumped on the road, naked. She succumbed to her injuries 13 days later in a hospital in Singapore.
All the 6 accused were arrested for their heinous crime, apart from the 4 who are currently on the death raw and exploiting the law to delay their execution, the 5th accused – Ram Singh – allegedly committed suicide while in the Delhi’s Tihar jail, the 6th accused was a minor (couple of months short of turning 18) and served 3 years in juvenile reform facility before being released.