New Delhi: A Delhi Court on Friday issued a fresh death warrant for the four convicts of 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, scheduling their execution on February 1, 2020 at 6 am in Tihar jail. According to reports, additional sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora was hearing a plea by one of the four death row convicts in the case, Mukesh Kumar Singh, seeking postponement of the date of his execution scheduled for January 22.

Earlier in the day, the Tihar jail authorities sought issuance of fresh death warrants against the four convicts. Public Prosecutor Irfan Ahmed told the court that Mukesh's mercy plea was rejected by President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday.

Judge Arora, who had signed the January 22 death warrant for the four convicts earlier this month, issued a fresh order after being informed about the rejection of a mercy plea filed by Mukesh.


Reacting to rescheduling of convicts' execution, Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi expressed her dissatisfaction saying that our judicial system only listens to the convicts. "Jo mujrim chahte the vahi ho raha hai...tareek pe tareek, tareek pe tareek. Humara system aisa hai ki jahan convict ki suni jaati hai. (It is happening as the convicts want.. dates on dates, dates on dates. Our system is such that it only listens to the convicts)," an agitated Asha Devi said.

Parents of the victim were confident that mercy petition and other efforts to delay death sentence by convicts will not be entertained by the court and execution will take place on January 22. "I am sure they will be hanged on January 22 ", the 2012 rape and murder victim Nirbhaya's father Badrinath told IANS earlier in the day.

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President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday rejected the mercy petition of the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case convict Mukesh Singh. The President's decision comes a day after the Union Home Ministry on Thursday night sent Singh's mercy petition to him recommending its rejection, hours after the plea was received from the Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal's office for review.

The 23-year-old woman was brutally gang raped and tortured on December 16, 2012, which later led to her death. All the six accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. One of the accused was a minor and appeared before a juvenile justice court, while another accused committed suicide in Tihar Jail.

The remaining four were convicted and sentenced to death by a trial court in September 2013, and the verdict was confirmed by the Delhi High Court in March 2014 and upheld in May 2017 by the Supreme Court, which also dismissed their review petitions and curative petitions.