Delhi High Court to hear Nirbhaya convict's plea against his death warrant

Delhi High Court on Wednesday (January 15) will hear the petition of Mukesh Kumar, one of the convicts of the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case, who pleaded the court to set aside trial court`s order on his death warrant. The division bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Sangeeta Dhingra Sehgal will hear the plea.

The convict's petition has informed High Court that his mercy petition is pending before Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and President of India, therefore, he should be given a minimum 14 days notice between the rejection of his mercy petition and scheduled date of execution.

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Notably, Mukesh Kumar approached the HC after the Supreme Court dismissed curative petitions of the two death row convicts, including Mukesh Singh, in the Nirbhaya case on Tuesday.

A five-judge Bench of Justices NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, RF Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan heard the petitions filed by the convicts, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh. The curative petitions were filed in the top court after a Delhi court issued death warrants in their names for their hanging on January 22.

Besides them, two other convicts named Pawan and Akshay are also slated to be executed on the same day at 7 am in Delhi`s Tihar Jail premises. 

These convicts were sentenced to death for raping a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus in the national capital on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012.

The victim, who was later given the name Nirbhaya, had succumbed to injuries at a hospital in Singapore where she had been airlifted for medical treatment. 

Notably, the four convicts have broke prison rules 23 times in total during their stay at Tihar, while three of them earned Rs 1,37,000 from prison wages, sources said. 

Tihar sources told ANI that Akshay got one punishment, Mukesh got three, Pawan got eight and Vinay has got 11 for breaking prison rules. While Mukesh chose not to do any labour work, Akshay earned Rs 69,000; Pawan earned Rs 29,000, and Vinay earned Rs 39,000 from prison wages.

Vinay, who is the one to have got the maximum punishment among the four convicts inside the Tihar Jail, is facing anxiety, said the sources, adding that the family of all the convicts have been allowed to meet them twice before execution.

Another convict Akshay`s family had met him last in November and he usually speaks to them over phone. No one has come to meet him since after the announcement of execution date.

The sources have also shared that Pawan Jallad, one of the executioner, will stay inside Tihar Jail only, and added that he will come to Delhi two days before the execution and all the execution will happen together.

(With Agency Inputs)