Delhi court stays execution of Nirbhaya convicts

New Delhi: Exactly 15 hours before they were due to be hanged, the four Nirbhaya gangrape-murder case convicts on Friday got yet another last-minute reprieve as a Delhi court deferred their execution indefinitely.

Convicts Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) — who were due to be executed at 6 am on Saturday — will not be hanged until further court orders. However, mercy petition filed by convict Vinay Sharma got the hanging postponed.

Additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana passed the order on the plea by the convicts seeking adjournment of the executions “sine die”. This is the second time that the execution of the death warrants has been deferred. The first order for execution of death sentence, issued on January 7 for January 22, was stayed on January 17. The second order, issued on January 17, for February 1 was stayed on Friday.

In deeply distressing scenes outside the Patiala House court complex here, Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi broke down and cried after the execution of the four men convicted in the 2012 gangrape, torture and murder of her 23-year-old daughter was postponed for a second time.

Asha Devi said convicts’ lawyer A.P. Singh had bragged to her in open court that “the hanging will never happen”.

We have to follow the law: Judge
Drawing on seemingly endless reserves of courage and patience, she hit back saying that she would continue to fight for justice.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said it was “sad” that the convicts were “escaping the death sentence” by using legal loopholes, stressing that there was an urgent need to amend the laws to ensure hanging in cases of rape within six months.

Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: “It saddens me that convicts in the Nirbhaya case are escaping the death sentence by using legal loopholes. We are in dire need to amend our law so that in cases of rape, hanging takes place within six months.”