New Delhi: The Delhi High Court will pronounce order on the Centre's plea challenging stay on the execution of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case at 2pm on Wednesday.
Justice Suresh Kumar Kait had on February 2 reserved order on the Centre's plea after holding a special hearing on Saturday and Sunday.
The Centre and the Delhi government has challenged the trial court's January 31 order staying "till further orders" the execution of all the four convicts in the case -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31), who are lodged in Tihar Jail.
They were initially set to be hanged on January 22. On January 17, the trial court had issued black warrants for the second time for the execution of all the four convicts at 6 am on February 1. However, the Delhi court postponed the execution of death warrants 1 after Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana passed the order on a plea by the convicts.
As of now, two of the convicts - Mukesh Singh and Vinay Sharma – have exhausted all their legal remedies including the clemency plea which was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind. Akshay's curative petition and Pawan Gupta's claim that he was a juvenile at the time of the incident were both dismissed by the top court.
A 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, in a moving bus in south Delhi. She succumbed to her injuries days later, on December 29, at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore where she was taken for better medical treatment.
The savagery of the crime shook the nation and led to country-wide protests over the issue of women's safety and seeking speedy trial of the accused.
Besides the four convicts in Tihar jail, there are two others who were named accused in the case. The prime accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail in 2013. The other, a juvenile, who was said to be the most brutal of the attackers, was convicted by a juvenile justice board and was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.
Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay and Pawan were convicted and sentenced to death in September 2013.
(With inputs from agencies)
