Delhi: 2012 gangrape convicts’ hanging stayed by court
by Scroll StaffThe execution of the death row convicts was scheduled for February 1 at 6 am.
A court in Delhi on Friday stayed the execution of the four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder case, Live Law reported. The execution of the death row convicts was scheduled for February 1 at 6 am.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana passed the judgement on the plea filed by two of the convicts who sought a stay on their execution date.
“The lawyer of the convicts, AP Singh has challenged me saying that the convicts will never be executed,” the woman’s mother Asha Devi told ANI. “I will continue my fight. The government will have to execute the convicts.”
The plea was moved by convicts Akshay Kumar Singh and Pawan Gupta on Thursday. Lawyer AP Singh, representing the inmates, had on Thursday said that some legal remedies open to the convicts have still not been availed. He said that according to the Delhi Prison Rules, none of the four convicts can be hanged till the last convict has exhausted all his legal options, including the use of the mercy petition.
Akshay Singh, Mukesh Kumar Singh, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta were sentenced to death for raping and brutally assaulting a paramedical student on a bus on the night of December 16, 2012. The incident had sparked countrywide protests. The student died on December 29 that year at a Singapore hospital.
On January 14, the Supreme Court had rejected the curative petitions of convicts Mukesh Singh and Vinay Sharma. Mukesh Singh then sought mercy from President Ram Nath Kovind, who rejected it. He also moved the Delhi High Court to set aside the death warrant issued by a trial court. On Wednesday evening, Sharma also filed a mercy plea with the president.
Mukesh Singh had filed a petition on January 25 under Article 32 of the Constitution for judicial review of “the manner of rejection of the mercy petition”, according to his advocate Vrinda Grover. His petition was listed on Monday before Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, who said it should be “top priority” since the execution is scheduled for February 1. “If somebody is going to be hanged then nothing can be more urgent than this,” Bobde said. However, the court rejected the plea on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court dismissed the curative petition filed by convict Akshay Kumar Singh to commute his death sentence.
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