New Delhi: The four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case will not be hanged on Saturday morning as a Delhi court on Friday postponed the execution of their black warrants till further order.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana passed the order on the plea by the convicts seeking adjournment of the executions "sine die" (with no appointed date for resumption).
Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31) were scheduled to be hanged on February 1 at 6 am.
This is for 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 warrant, issued on January 17, for February 1 was stayed on Friday.
Advocate A P Singh, the counsel for the three convicts — Pawan, Vinay and Akshay — had urged the court to adjourn the matter "sine die" saying their legal remedies were yet to be exhausted.
The convicts' lawyer had argued that rules dictate that when one convict's plea is pending the others cannot be hanged.