A Delhi court on Monday issued a fresh death warrant for the four death row convicts — Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay and Pawan — in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case. The four convicts are scheduled to be executed on March 3 at 6 am.
The court was hearing pleas filed by Nirbhaya’s parents and the Delhi government seeking fresh death warrants for the four death row convicts.
Additional Session Judge Dharmender Rana reserved the order after hearings during which Mukesh Kumar Singh, one of the four death row convicts in the case told the court that he does not want to be represented by advocate Vrinda Grover. The court then appointed advocate Ravi Qazi to represent Mukesh.
The court was also informed that another death row convict, Vinay Sharma, is on hunger strike in Tihar jail.
Vinay was assaulted in jail and has head injuries, his lawyer told the court, adding that he was suffering from acute mental illness and hence the death sentence cannot be carried out. The court directed the Tihar jail superintendent to take appropriate care of Vinay as per law.
Another convict Pawan Gupta's counsel told the court that he wanted to move a curative petition before the Supreme Court and the mercy plea against the death sentence before the President.
Gupta is the only one among the four convicts who has not yet filed the curative petition -- the last legal remedy available to a person, which is decided in-chamber. He also has the option of filing a mercy plea.
Akshay Kumar's counsel informed court that he has prepared fresh mercy petition to be moved before the President.
The court was hearing the applications by Nirbhaya's parents and the Delhi government, seeking fresh death warrants for the four convicts after the Supreme Court granted liberty to the authorities to approach the trial court for issuance of fresh date for the execution of these convicts.
The Supreme Court made it clear on Friday that pendency of the Centre's plea, seeking separate execution of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, will not come in the way of trial court's issuing fresh date for their hanging.
Since no pleas of the convicts are pending before the apex court and the mercy petitions of three of them have been rejected by the President -- while the fourth one has chosen not file clemency plea yet, the trial court can issue fresh date of execution, it had said.
With PTI inputs