New Delhi, 15th January: The hanging of Nirbhaya’s culprits is likely to pass the deadline of January 22, as a mercy plea filed by one of them is still pending with the authorities.
The High Court on Wednesday refused to accept the mercy petition filed by Mukesh Singh. Even though it is rejected, a convict has to be given 14 days’ notice before execution. However, the bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal allowed the convict to appeal to the lower court.
Advocate Rahul Mehra, Standing Counsel for Tihar Jail authorities said, ‘Execution of the convicts (2012 Nirbhaya case) will surely not take place on January 22’. He further stated, ‘It can only take place 14 days after the mercy plea is rejected as we are bound by the rule which says that a notice of 14 days must be provided to the convicts after the rejection of mercy plea’
Earlier, Patiala House Court had issued their death warrant on January 7 against the four convicts – Mukesh Kumar (32), Vinay Sharma (26), Pawan Gupta (25) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) – of the Nirbhaya case.