Dec 16 convicts’ hanging on Mar 20

NEWDELHI:FOUR people convicted for the December 16, 2012 gang rape and murder of a young paramedical student in the national capital will hang at 5:30am on March 20, a court in Delhi ordered on Thursday, issuing a black warrant in the case for the fourth time after jail authorities argued that the men have exhausted all legal remedies against their death sentence.

Though the counsel of three of the four convicts sought time from the court to deliberate legal options, additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana observed that there was no statutory bar in issuing the death warrant.

“In view of the same, it is directed... (that the) convicts to be hanged by the neck until they are dead on 20.03.2020 at 5:30am,” the court said, in an order that was welcomed by the mother of the 23-year-old victim.

The victim’s family has accused Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26), Pawan Gupta (25) and Akshay Thakur (31) of delaying their petitions and wasting the time of courts in order to stall the execution process.

After Thursday’s order, Asha Devi, the victim’s mother, said she hopes that the convicts, who are lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail, will finally be hanged.

“Today, a new date has been given because all remedies have been exhausted. I hope that this date is final and they are hanged and my daughter gets justice. There is an end to everything and this is the end for them. Still, till the time they are not hanged, we are ready to fight them. But the biggest victory will be when they are hanged,” she said.

The court set the fresh execution date a day after the President rejected the mercy petition by Gupta, whose curative petition in the Supreme Court was dismissed on March 2. The pleas by his three co-convicts, too, have been rejected.

While a curative petition in the Supreme Court is considered the last judicial resort for redressal of grievances, a mercy plea by the President is the last legal remedy for a litigant.

This is the fourth time that a death warrant has been issued in the keenly watched case.

The first date for the execution (January 22) was postponed to February 1 on the grounds that the convicts were yet to avail all legal remedies. Then, on January 31, the trial court stayed till further orders the execution of the death warrant. On February 17, the court set March 3 as the new date for the hanging of the four convicts. On March 2, the court deferred the hanging again after Gupta filed his mercy plea.

ASHA DEVI, THE VICTIM’S MOTHER, SAID SHE HOPES THAT THE CONVICTS WILL

FINALLY BE HANGED