On a day President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy plea of death row convict Mukesh Singh in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case, a Delhi court on Friday issued a fresh death warrant to hang all four convicts in Tihar jail at 6 a.m. on February 1.
Mukesh had submitted a mercy petition to the President earlier this week. He had followed this up with a petition at the Delhi court seeking postponement of his execution.
Judge’s query
Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora, who had previously ordered execution of all four convicts for January 22, questioned why the other three convicts had not yet appealed against the death warrant or exhausted their legal remedies.
“Would it not be delaying tactics? How far can it be stretched,” the judge asked.
The Delhi Prison Rule states that, “If the sentence of death has been passed on more than one person in the same case, and if an appeal or an application is made by or on behalf of only one or more but not all of them the execution of the sentence shall be postponed in the case of all such persons (prisoner sentenced to deaths)”.
Currently, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh have already exhausted their option of a curative petition before the Supreme Court against the death sentence, while the other two — Pawan Gupta and Akshay Singh — are yet to approach the apex court with their curative pleas. Sharma, Gupta and Akshay Singh — have also not filed a mercy plea before the President.
Advocate A.P. Singh, representing Sharma and Gupta, said a case was pending before the Supreme Court on the question of Gupta’s alleged juvenile status when the crime was committed.
