A Delhi court ordered on Tuesday that four convicts in the sensational 2012 Nirbhaya Gang rape and murder case will be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail, saying "sufficient time and opportunity" was given to them to "exercise and exhaust their legal remedies".
The order was pronounced by Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora who issued the death warrants against the four death row convicts -- Mukesh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31).
Their review petitions have been dismissed by the Supreme Court for the heinous crime committed by them seven years ago when the nation had come out on streets demanding exemplary punishment to them.
"As is apparent from the record, sufficient time and opportunity was given to the convicts to exercise and exhaust their remedies as available to them under the law," the court said.
It added that either the remedies have been exercised and exhausted by the convicts or have not been resorted to despite being afforded sufficient time and opportunity.
"In these given facts and circumstances when reasonable time and opportunity has been afforded to the convicts to exercise their remedies, there is nothing to delay any further in passing orders on the applications seeking issuance of death warrants," the court said.
It further said, "Keeping in view the above, the application preferred by the applicant are disposed of with directions that warrant to cause the sentence of death to be carried into effect are separately issued with the directions to the concerned jail Superintendent, Tihar jail to carry the death sentence of the convicts into execution of January 22, 2020 at 7 am."
During the hearing, the prosecution said there was no application pending before any court or the President right now by any of the convicts and the review petition of all the convicts was dismissed by the Supreme Court.
While urging the court to issue the death warrants, the prosecution said, "In between the issuance and the execution of death warrants, if the convicts want to file curative petitions, they can do so."
The counsel for two of the convicts - Mukesh and Vinay - said they were in the process of filing curative petition in the Supreme Court.
When the hearing commenced, advocate M L Sharma appeared before the court and said that he was representing Mukesh.
However, amicus curiae Vrinda Grover, who on the last date was appointed by the court to represent Mukesh, said Sharma had no authority to represent him.
The court heard the arguments from both of them and directed Sharma to produce Vakalatnama (document empowering lawyer) showing that Mukesh authorised him.
After the court reserved the order for 3.30 pm on issuance of death warrants, Mukesh's mother entered the court room crying and urged the court to show mercy.
The court refused to entertain her.
Talking to media persons outside the courtroom, she said her son was framed because he was poor.
The court interacted with all the convicts through video conferencing from Tihar jail.
The media was not allowed inside the video conferencing room.
After the court passed the order, the lawyers and family members of the convicts came out and informed the media about court's order.
Victim's parents said they were satisfied with the order.
The trial court had earlier directed Tihar jail authorities to seek within a week response from the four death row convicts as to whether they were filing mercy pleas against their executions with the President of India.
It was hearing the applications moved by Nirbhaya's parents and the prosecution (Delhi government) on December 13, 2018 seeking issuance of death warrant against the convict.
The Supreme Court on December 18, 2019 had dismissed the plea of Akshay seeking review of its decision, saying review petition is not "re-hearing of appeal over and over again" and it had already considered the mitigating and aggravating circumstances while upholding the death penalty.
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.
On July 9, 2018 , the apex court had dismissed the review pleas filed by the other three convicts in the case, saying no grounds have been made out by them for review of the 2017 verdict.
One of the six accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail here.
A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board and was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.
The top court in its 2017 verdict had upheld the capital punishment awarded to them by the Delhi High Court and the trial court.
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