New Delhi:A Delhi court Friday postponed execution of death warrants of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case till further orders.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana passed the order on plea by the convicts seeking a stay on their execution on Saturday, February 1. The court had reserved its order in the pre-lunch session.
The court did not agree with the Tihar jail authorities which had challenged the application of three condemned prisoners in the case seeking a stay on their execution.
The trial court on January 17 issued black warrants for the second time for the execution of all the four convicts in the case -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan (25), Vinay (26) and Akshay (31) -- in Tihar jail at 6 am on February 1. Earlier, on January 7, the court had fixed January 22 as the hanging date.
As of now, only Mukesh has exhausted all his legal remedies including the clemency plea which was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17 and the appeal against the rejection was thrown out by the Supreme Court on January 29.
Shortly after the order, Nirbhaya's mother on Friday said she will continue her fight till the convicts are hanged.
Devi told reporters her "hopes are dashed" but she will continue her fight till the convicts are hanged.
Convict Akshay's curative petition was dismissed by the top court on January 30. Another death row convict Vinay moved mercy plea before President on January 29, which is pending.
The counsel for Akshay, Vinay and Pawan has approached the trial court seeking stay on the execution scheduled on February 1, saying the legal remedies of some of the convicts are yet to be availed.
Earlier in the day, the apex court dismissed Pawan's plea seeking review of the decision by which his application claiming to be a juvenile at the time of the commission of offence was rejected.
A 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gangraped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people before she was thrown out on the road.
One of the six accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail in 2013.
A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board and was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.
(With PTI inputs)
