Four Nirbhaya Case Convicts hanged to death in Tihar Jail at 5:30.AM
(Judicial Quest News Network)
Justice delayed but not denied, four Nirbhaya gang rape and murder convicts finally hanged till death at Tihar Jail in Delhi in the wee hours of Friday.
With this a horrific chapter in India’s long history of sexual assault, which had shaken the entire nation’s soul, ended.
On Dec16, 2012, a 23 years old paramedical student was gang-raped by six men including a juvenile on a moving bus while she was on the way to her home in Dwarka with her friend after watching a movie.
The Director – General Goel said this is the first time that four men will be hanged together in the jail.
Hours before the conviction of the four death row convicts in the December 16, 2012, gangrape-murder case, Tihar jail officials tested the hanging equipment by carrying out Dummy executions. The Convicts— Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshaya Kumar Singh(31)….hanged at 5:30AM on Friday inside jail No.4 at Tihar Jail.
The last execution took place seven years ago, when parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was hanged.
It was on January 7 that the Trial Court issued death warrants in the case for the first time, for the execution on January22.
On January 17 the date was postponed, noting that convict Mukesh’s mercy plea was rejected only on that day. The new date was fixed as February 1, to provide the mandatory 14 days’ notice for the convict after the rejection of death penalty.
On the eve of the new date January 31st, The trial Court stayed the execution until further orders, taking note of the fact that the other three convicts have not exhausted all their legal remedies Dharmendra rana of the Patiala High Court refused to accept the plea of the State for separate hanging of Mukesh by reasoning that all convicts sentenced by a common order should be executed together.
Next on February 17, the trial Court issued a black warrant for execution on March 3.
On march 2, a day before the scheduled hanging, the date was differed taking into account the mercy petition submitted by Pawan Gupta.
After the rejection of Pawan’s mercy petition, the trial court issued fresh death warrant on March 5 for execution on March 20.
[Read the Judgement here]
