New Delhi: Three death-row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case have approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) seeking a stay on their execution, the news agency ANI reported on Monday.
According to the news agency, Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Singh (31) have approached the ICJ.
Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Court rejected another plea from fourth convict, Mukesh Singh (32), seeking restoration of his legal remedies.
The convict had sought quashing of all orders passed by courts and the rejection of his mercy petition by the President since the day his curative petition was dismissed by the apex court on the ground that the earlier lawyer Vrinda Grover had misled him.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah held Singh's plea as not maintainable saying that the review petition and the curative petition have both been dismissed in the case.
On March 5, a trial court issued fresh warrants with March 20, 5:30am, as the date for the execution of the four convicts Mukesh, Pawan, Vinay and Akshay.
The Tihar Jail authorities said on Sunday that they had asked the hangman to report three days ahead of the scheduled hanging.
The execution of their death warrants has been deferred thrice so far due to delays by them in exhausting legal remedies.
A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was gang-raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012. She died a fortnight later.
Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as the accused. Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail days after the trial began in the case.
The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.
(With PTI inputs)
