Two of the death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case have approached Patiala High Court with an allegation that the Tihar jail authorities are creating hindrances in the filing of their petitions. Their plea is likely to be heard on Saturday. This may delay their date of hanging, which has been fixed on February 1.
Pawan and Akshay have alleged that the jail authorities are delaying the release of documents needed to file curative and mercy petitions. Recently, the curative petitions of Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh, two other convicts were turned down by the Supreme Court. Mukeshs’s mercy plea was also rejected by the President of India.
Vinay, the other convict, had filed for a mercy plea last year but there were some legal complications over his plea and hence his plea has not been dealt with yet. The four death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya case were first given death sentence in 2013 by a trial court. The sentence was later upheld by Delhi High Court after six months and then by the Supreme Court in May 2017. But, it was only earlier this month that the death warrants were issued. However, the date of execution had to be postponed after two of the convicts took the next legal move.
The Home Ministry recently moved Supreme Court appealing it to frame strict rules so that death-row convicts cannot go on using the law for delaying their execution.
Six persons were arrested and charged with rape and murder of a 23-year old medical student in 2012, who came to be known as Nirbhaya. One of the accused was a minor and was tried in the juvenile justice court. Another accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail. The other four were sentenced to death by a trial court in September 2013, and the verdict was confirmed by Delhi High Court in 2014 and upheld by Supreme Court in 2017. Their review petitions were dismissed too.
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