4 accused in the 2012 Nirbhaya rape & murder case are set to be hanged on Friday morning

HAVING exhausted all legal remedies, four accused in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case will face gallows at 5.30 am IST on March 20 at Delhi’s Tihar Jail. President Ram Nath Kovind, the Supreme Court of India and a Delhi court have rejected their last-minute pleas on staying execution. The Delhi court Thursday dismissed the plea of three of the four death-row convicts seeking a stay on the execution. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana dismissed the plea of Akshay Kumar, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma seeking a stay on the death penalty, saying the second mercy plea of one of them was still pending. The court was informed by the public prosecutor that second mercy pleas of Akshay and Pawan, were rejected on the ground that the first such plea was entertained and considered on merit. He told the court that advocate A P Singh, counsel for the convicts, was giving false information stating second mercy plea of Pawan was pending and said that all the convicts have exhausted their legal remedies. Singh also said that convict Akshaya’s wife has filed for a divorce in a city court in Bihar which was pending. The special public prosecutor said any other petition does not fall under the purview of legal remedy in the present case. On March 5, a trial court had issued fresh death warrants for March 20 at 5.30 am, as the date for the execution of convicts Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31). Supreme Court of India has also declined Mukesh’s plea claiming he wasn’t in Delhi at time of crime. ail officers said that on Wednesday they carried out dummy executions inside the hanging courtyard and inspected the hanging courtyard inside jail 3 again on Thursday morning. The four men had assaulted and gang raped a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, was beaten, gang raped, and tortured in a moving private bus in which she was travelling with her male friend in South Delhi on December 16,2012. The young woman died at a hospital in Singapore two weeks later.  Another accused in the crime has been released as he was then minor. The last hanging inside Tihar was of Afzal Guru on February 9, 2013. Guru was convicted for his role in the 2001 Parliament attack case.