A Delhi court on Thursday again issued fresh death warrants against four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case and for the fourth time set a date for them to be hanged on March 20 at 5.30 a.m. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana said, “It is directed that convicts shall be hanged by the neck until they are dead by on March 20 at 5.30 a.m.” Earlier, the court gave the time of execution as 6 a.m., but later changed. The four convicts — Vinay, Akshay, Mukesh and Pawan were scheduled to be executed on March 3 at 6 a.m. and before that on January 22, and February 1.
The court had last time deferred the warrants till further orders on Pawan”s mercy petition came. Pawan was the only convict whose legal remedies were pending till the last date of execution. The first date of execution of the four convicts, January 22, was postponed to February 1. Then the trial court on January 31 stayed the execution till further orders as the convicts had not exhausted their legal remedies. The court on February 17 directed that the four be hanged at 6 a.m. on March 3. It was the third date of execution of the death warrants.
The case pertains to the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in the national capital on December 16, 2012. She died on December 29 at a hospital in Singapore following complications. Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused. Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail days after the trial began in the case. The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.
