Fresh Dec 16 death warrant out for 6am on March 3
Pawan Gupta can still file a curative petition in the SC and a mercy plea before the President
NEWDELHI: Four convicts guilty of gang-raping and murdering a paramedical student on a moving bus in Delhi will hang at 6am on March 3, a Delhi court said on Monday, issuing for the third time a death warrant in the sensational case.
But convict Pawan Gupta can still file a curative petition in the Supreme Court and a mercy plea before the President. His lawyer said Gupta intends to avail the legal remedies.
NEWDELHI: Four convicts guilty of gang-raping and murdering a paramedical student on a moving bus in Delhi on December 16, 2012, will hang at 6am on March 3, a Delhi court said on Monday, issuing for the third time a death warrant in the sensational case that triggered countrywide protests.
Deferring the date of execution any further will be “sacrilegious to the rights of the victim for expeditious justice”, additional sessions judge Dharmendra Rana said. The previous black warrants, issued on January 22 and February 1, were stayed as convicts Mukesh Kumar (33), Vinay Sharma (27), Akshay Thakur (33) and Pawan Gupta (25) argued in courts that they were yet to exhaust all legal remedies.
“... (the convicts will be) hanged by the neck until they are dead on March 3 at 6 am,” the judge said. A section of the people present in the courtroom clapped as he pronounced the order.
Asha Devi, the paramedic’s mother, said her family had “struggled” to get justice and hoped that the black warrant won’t be stayed. “...I am satisfied that the death warrant has been issued finally. We have complete faith in the judiciary. But our real victory would be when the convicts are actually hanged,” she said. Asha Devi has previously accused the four men and their lawyers of using delaying tactics to defer the executions.
Badrinath Singh, the victim’s father, said: “We were agitated on several occasions because the death warrant was not issued. The Delhi high court granted (on February 5) all the convicts a week’s time to avail legal remedies...we are now satisfied that the warrants have been issued and the convicts would finally face the gallows.”
Protesting outside the court,
the family members of the convicts said the death sentence should be commuted. While Vinay Sharma’s mother said hanging will not ensure that such crimes will not take place again, Mukesh Kumar’s mother pleaded for mercy with folded hands.
Appearing for the state in the courtroom, public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan said a death warrant can be issued against the convicts since no plea, application
or appeal is pending in the court of law. He said the mercy petitions of three of the convicts— Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Kumar — have already been rejected.
But convict Pawan Gupta can still file a curative petition in the Supreme Court and a mercy plea before the President.
Ravi Qazi, his lawyer, said Pawan Gupta intends to avail of the legal remedies but “was not aware of the seven days’ time frame” granted to the convicts by the high court.
Advocates Jitendra Kumar Jha and Seema Kushwaha, who appeared for the victim, too, said the death warrant should be issued so that the convicts cannot delay the execution.
Advocate Vrinda Grover told the court that Mukesh Kumar, whom she represented, does not want her to continue as his counsel. Following this, the court discharged her from the case.
Advocate AP Singh, appearing for two of the convicts, told the court that his client, Vinay Sharma, is suffering from mental illness and he should not be hanged. However, the court rejected his contention.
Singh also said he will file a fresh mercy plea for Akshay Thakur as the earlier one did not have the records of his financial status. However, the court said mere preparation of a fresh mercy petition cannot be a ground to defer the execution.
The four convicts assaulted
and gang-raped the 23-year-old young woman on a moving bus on December 16, 2012, before throwing her out of the vehicle. The woman died about two weeks later at a hospital in Singapore.
Ram Singh (35), the fifth accused in the case, allegedly killed himself in Tihar jail in 2013. An underage person, who was convicted by a juvenile justice board in 2015, was released from a correctional home after serving a three-year term.
In September 2013, a fast-track court awarded death penalty to the four convicts. It was upheld by the high court in March 2014 and by the Supreme Court in May 2017.