No hanging tomorrow: Delhi court stays execution of Nirbhaya case convicts

Delhi's Patiala court on Friday approved the plea filed by death row convicts in the Nirbhaya case convicts, seeking stay on their execution on February 1.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Delhi court has stayed the execution of Nirbhaya convicts
• The hanging have been stayed until further order
• The four convicts were scheduled to hang on Feb 1

A Delhi court on Friday approved the plea filed by death row convicts in the Nirbhaya case convicts, seeking a stay on their execution on February 1. The executions have been postponed till further orders.

The verdict was delivered by Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana at Delhi's Patiala court.

Advocate AP Singh, representing the convicts -- Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Kumar -- has urged the court to adjourn the executions "sine die" (with no appointed date for resumption) as Vinay's mercy plea before the president is pending.

Saying only one convict's plea is pending and the others can be hanged, Tihar Jail authorities challenged the application of three condemned prisoners in the case seeking a stay on their execution.

The convicts' lawyer disagreed with the jail authorities and said rules dictate that when one convict's plea is pending the others cannot be hanged.

The fourth person sentenced to death in the case is Mukesh Kumar, whose mercy plea was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17. The appeal against the rejection was thrown out by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The trial court on January 17 issued black warrants for the second time for the execution of all the four convicts in the case in Tihar jail at 6 am on February 1. Earlier, on January 7, the court had fixed January 22 as the hanging date.

The curative petitions of Vinay and Akshay have been rejected by the apex court. Pawan is the only one yet not to file a curative plea.

Convicts have the option of moving a mercy petition before the president only after the apex court dismisses their curative plea.

A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who came to be known as "Nirbhaya" (the fearless one) was gangraped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.

(With inputs from PTI)