New Delhi
The four death row convicts in the brutal 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder case will be hanged at 7 am on 22 January, a Delhi court has ruled on Monday. Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora issued the order today. According to ANI, the Delhi court said that the convicts can use their legal remedies (curative petition and a mercy plea to the President of India) within 14 days.
During the hearing, the prosecution said there was no application pending before any court or the President right now by any of the convicts and the review petition of all the convicts was dismissed by the Supreme Court.
While urging the court to issue the death warrants, the prosecution said, “In between issuance and execution of death warrants of the convicts want to file curative petitions they can do so.” The counsel for two of the convicts ” Mukesh and Vinay ” said they were in process of filing a curative petition in the apex court.
Reacting to the death sentence handed out to the perpetrators, mother of the 23-year-old paramedic student Asha Devi said, “My daughter has got justice. Execution of the four convicts will empower the women of the country. This decision will strengthen the trust of people in the judicial system.”
Reacting to the order, Manisha Gulati chairperson of Punjab Women Commission said, “It is a very good decision and I respect it. Now the soul of #Nirbhaya will rest in peace. Today every daughter in the country has got justice.”
After the order was out, one of the convict’s lawyer AP Singh told ANI that he will file a curative petition in the Supreme Court.
In December 2018, parents of the 23-year-old had moved the Patiala House Court to expedite the procedure of executing the death penalty. Earlier this week, the court had reserved order on issuing of death warrants against the four death row convicts.
The Supreme Court on 18 December had dismissed the plea of Akshay seeking review of its decision, saying review petition is not “re-hearing of appeal over and over again” and it had already considered the mitigating and aggravating circumstances while upholding the death penalty.
Order after seven years
In December 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern was brutally raped and attacked in a moving bus in South Delhi by six people. The woman had boarded the nearly vacant bus in Munirka in South Delhi along with her male friend on her way back home on December 16 that year. After raping and brutalising the woman and beating her friend, the assailants had thrown them out of the bus.
After receiving initial treatment in New Delhi for a few days, she was shifted to the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, where she succumbed to injuries on December 29, 2012.
Six people were arrested in the case, including a minor. During the trial, the driver of the bus was found dead in his cell. The Juvenile Justice Board finds the minor guilty for gangrape and murder and awards three years term at a probation home.
In September 2013, a fast track trial court awarded death sentence to the four adults accused in the case (the fifth accused committed suicide) and referred the case to the Delhi High Court for confirmation of death sentence. In March 2014, the Delhi High Court upheld the death sentences awarded to the four convicts. The juvenile was released from prison in 2015.
Last month, a Delhi court had directed Tihar jail authorities to seek a response from the four death row convicts in the case whether they are filing mercy pleas against their executions with the President of India.
The death warrants will be executed at 7 am on 22 January.
