December 16 gangrape case: Convicts to be hanged tomorrow

The four convicts of December 16 gangrape-murder case will be hanged on Friday, March 20, as the Supreme Court on Thursday junked two separate pleas filed by Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh. Delhi's Patiala House Court too dismissed their plea of seeking a stay on the execution.

While Gupta moved a curative plea claiming he was a juvenile at the time of the crime, Singh challenged the Delhi High Court order which dismissed his plea seeking a stay on the hanging. Singh, in his plea, claimed he was not in Delhi at the time of the gangrape and murder.

The other two convicts who are set to be hanged tomorrow at 5.30 am are Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31).

The execution of their death warrants has been deferred thrice so far due to delays caused by the convicts trying to exhaust all legal remedies available to them.

Minutes after the apex court dismissed Gupta's curative petition, the victim's mother said that her daughter will get justice tomorrow. "Court gave them so many opportunities that they have become habituated of bringing something ahead of hanging and get it postponed. Now, our Courts are aware of their tactics. She will get justice tomorrow," she said.

On Monday, three death row convicts moved the International Court of Justice appealing for an urgent hearing to prevent the execution. The three convicts — Vinay, Pawan, and Akshay — moved the petition through their lawyer AP Singh, calling the execution of death warrants illegal.

They also mentioned the outbreak of coronavirus in Delhi stating, "That is also important to pertain here that due to burst air quality in the world and COVID 2019 (coronavirus) also in Delhi NCR and other states are facing medical emergency…Functioning of courts from Monday 16.03.2020 shall be restricted to urgent matters with such member of benches as may be found appropriate. Everyone is aware of what is happening in (the) world and also Delhi NCR in regard of water and air. Life is going short to short, then why death penalty?" the petition read.

The petition stated that the Tihar jail authorities were preparing the execution of the four death row convicts in a "hurried manner, such a hasty and secretive execution will be plainly illegal as above mentioned three convicts are yet to avail their legal remedy."

(Inputs and image from theindianexprss.com)