Nirbhaya Case: Delhi HC Rejects Last-Minute Plea Of Convicts; Hanging To Take Place Today At 5:30 AM

Three of the four death-row convicts have moved the Delhi High Court Thursday evening challenging the trial court order declining to stay their execution scheduled for early morning tomorrow.

All four convicts will now be hanged by the noose on Friday, March 20 at 5:30 am. (Image: PTI)

New Delhi: Delhi High Court on late Thursday night rejected the last-minute plea of Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case convicts seeking stay on their execution scheduled to take place on March 20 (Friday) on 5:30 am. HC pulled up the lawyer representing the death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case for not adhering to prerequisite technicalities before filing the petition. Advocate A.P. Singh moved the High Court challenging the trial court's order which had declined to stay the execution scheduled for early morning on March 20. "There is no annexure, no memo of parties, there is nothing in this matter, no affidavits, nothing. Do you have the permission to file this petition?" the judge asked the counsel.

2012 Delhi gang-rape case: Delhi High Court says no foundation has been given in the petition. It has been filed without any index, list of dates, memo of parties, annexures or any affidavits. https://t.co/WKEqNgrmie

— ANI (@ANI) March 19, 2020

Citing yet another bizarre delaying tactic, Singh retorted, "Due to Coronavirus, no photocopy machine is working." In a late-night hearing, the court said that the pendency of a divorce plea of death row convict Akshay Kumar Singh's wife was not relevant to stay his execution along with three other convicts. With less that 24 hours left for the scheduled hangings of all the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, Delhi court on Thursday turned down another manoeuvre adopted by the convicts and dismissed an application seeking a stay on their execution on the grounds of pending legal remedies. The Patiala House Court, which earlier set 5:30 tomorrow as the time of execution for the Nirbhaya convicts, has refused to stay the death warrants issued by it. The four convicts -- Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay (31) -- will now be hanged by the noose on Friday, March 20 at 5:30 a.m. for brutally raping and murdering a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, later dubbed as 'Nirbhaya', on December 16, 2012. WATCH REPORT | Nirbhaya Case: All Four Convicts To Be Hanged Tomorrow At 5:30 AM The death-row convicts, represented by advocate A.P. Singh, had knocked on the doors of the trial court two days before the execution seeking a stay on their hanging. A bench of Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and A S Bopanna during today's hearing said that no ground was made out in Akshay's plea for judicial review of the decision rejecting mercy petition. Akshay had also filed the second mercy petition on Wednesday which was rejected by the President on Thursday. He had filed his first mercy plea on January 29 which was rejected on January 31. After the rejection of convicts' mercy plea, a teared-eye mother of the victim said her daughter's soul will now rest in peace and she had got justice seven years after the gruesome gangrape and murder that shook the nation. ALSO WATCH | Nirbhaya Convicts' Lawyer AP Singh Talks About Men's Commission "Finally the convicts will be hanged. Now I will get peace," Asha Devi told news agency PTI. Even the Supreme Court dismissed the challenge to President's rejection of Akshay Singh's mercy plea. No ground made out in Kumar's plea for judicial review of decision rejecting mercy petition, the apex court said. Meanwhile, the Tihar Jail authorities have started preparing the ground to hang the four men after several dummy runs and officials brushing up on details specified in the jail manual. This is the first time that four men will be hanged together in Tihar Jail, South Asia's largest prison complex that houses more than 16,000 inmates. A senior prison official said Pawan Jallad, a hangman from Meerut, reported to the Tihar Jail administration on Tuesday evening to prepare for the exercise. According to the jail manual, the jail superintendent will oversee the testing of the ropes and also inspect the gallows a day before the execution. ALSO WATCH | Nirbhaya Case: Dummy Executions Conducted In Tihar Jail Ahead Of Hangings The execution, specifies the Delhi Prison Rules 2018, will take place in the presence of the superintendent, deputy superintendent, medical officer in charge, resident medical officer and the district magistrate or additional district magistrate. A guard of not less than 10 constables, warders and two head constables, head warders or an equal number from the prison armed guard, will also be present, it states. The families of the prisoner will not be allowed to witness the executions. All other prisoners will be kept locked till the exercise is over and the bodies removed from the prison. After the execution, bodies of the four men will remain suspended for half an hour before being taken down or until the Resident Medical Officer certifies that their 'life is extinct'. This is how the whole saga, for which the entire country awaited with bated breath, is projected to come to an end and justice would be imparted to India's daughter, Nirbhaya. (With inputs from agencies)