Plea to stay death warrant in Nirbhaya case rejected

New Delhi: Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana on Monday dismissed a plea by two convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape-murder case for a stay on execution of death warrant scheduled for tomorrow.

The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who came to be known as Nirbhaya was gang raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012 and died a fortnight later.

On February 17, ASJ Rana had issued third time fresh date for execution of death warrants for March 3 at 6 am against  the four convicts Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Kumar Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Singh (31).

Counsel for the convicts contended before the court that fresh mercy petition on behalf of Akshay Kumar Singh and curative petition of Pawan Gupta have been filed and requested stay on the hanging.

Government counsel submitted that these are tactics to delay the execution. The state, counsel submitted, has not yet received any information regarding the second mercy petition of Akshay Singh. Curative petition on behalf of Pawan Gupta was filed after considerable delay and could not form grounds to stay the capital punishment.(UNI)