Nirbhaya rapists cannot be hanged on January 22: Delhi govt tells court

The Delhi government on Wednesday told the High Court that the four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape cannot be hanged on January 22, a date that was scheduled for their execution. 

Standing Counsel for Tihar Jail authorities, Advocate Rahul Mehra, informed the court that the convict can only be hanged after his mercy plea is rejected by the President.

"The fate of a death convict comes to finality only after his mercy plea is rejected by the President. It can only take place 14 days after the rejection as we are bound by the rule which says that a notice of 14 days must be provided to the convicts after the rejection of mercy plea," Mehra told the court.

It may be noted that one of the convict, Mukesh, filed a mercy plea before the President on Tuesday. He had also approached the Delhi High Court seeking to set aside the death warrant. His petition stated that the convict cannot be executed during the pendency of his mercy petitions before the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and the President.

The hanging of four convicts was scheduled for 7 AM on January 22. The death warrants against them were issued against them by a Delhi court earlier this month.

The four convicts in the Nirbhaya case will be executed in Jail No 3 of Tihar. 

A 23-year-old paramedic student Nirbhaya was gangraped and brutalised on a moving bus on December 16, 2012 before being dumped on the road. She was airlifted to Singapore where she died on December 29, 2012. 

Six people, including a juvenile, were arrested for the crime. The juvenile was released after serving a three-year term at a juvenile home, one convict allegedly committed suicide in jail while four others - Mukesh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) have been awarded death penalty.