Court directs Tihar authorities to file report on status of scheduled execution of Nirbhaya convicts

New Delhi, January 16

A Delhi court on Thursday directed Tihar jail authorities to file a proper report by Friday about the status of scheduled execution of convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.

Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora passed the directions after the jail authorities said they have written to the Delhi Government on the issue of scheduled execution on January 22 in view of pending remedies.

The court was hearing a plea by one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, Mukesh Kumar Singh, seeking postponement of the date of his execution on the ground that his mercy petition is pending with the President.

The lawyer appearing for Mukesh told the court that there are subsequent developments that necessitate setting aside the death warrants.

Mukesh’s counsel moved the trial court immediately after the Delhi High Court declined to entertain his plea to set aside the January 7 order issuing his death warrant and asked them to approach the lower court.

Meanwhile, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi has recommended the Union Home Ministry to reject the mercy petition of Mukesh Singh, one of the four convicts.

“The Home Ministry has received the mercy petition from the LG recommending its rejection. The petition is being examined and an appropriate decision will be taken soon,” a Home Ministry official said.

The Delhi Government on Wednesday recommended rejection of the mercy plea filed by Singh, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 gang rape and murder case, and forwarded it to the LG at “lightning speed”.

The 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in south Delhi by six persons before being thrown out on the road.

She died on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. — PTI

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