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New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday pulled up the lawyer representing the death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case for not adhering to prerequisite technicalities before filing the petition and later, dismissed the plea.
Advocate A.P. Singh moved the High Court challenging the trial court's order which had declined to stay the execution scheduled for early morning on March 20.
"There is no annexure, no memo of parties, there is nothing in this matter, no affidavits, nothing. Do you have the permission to file this petition?" the judge asked the counsel.
Singh retorted, "Due to coronavirus, no photocopy machine is working."
A Delhi court on Thursday turned down another manoeuvre adopted by the convicts in Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case and dismissed an application seeking a stay on their execution on the grounds of pending legal remedies.
The court observed that there is no "plausible reason" to suspend the execution of death sentence of the convicts.
"I do not find any plausible reasons to suspend the execution of death sentence simply because convict Pawan has opted not to exercise his legal remedy," Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana stated.
Also Read: Nirbhaya Case: SC Declines Plea Of Convict Seeking Restoration Of Legal Remedies
The judge said that the application is bereft of merit and junked it for having no valid grounds to justify the stay.
Later, the advocate of the convicts moved Supreme Court but it was dismissed by the apex court too.
2012 Delhi gang rape case: Supreme Court to hear the petition of all four death row convicts, seeking stay on execution, at 2:30 am today. #NirbhayaCase #NirbhayaVerdict pic.twitter.com/XwLqj2OsP7
— OTV (@otvnews) March 19, 2020
#NirbhayaCase: SC begins hearing petition of death row convict Pawan Gupta against rejection of his mercy plea by President & seeking stay on execution.
Justice Bhushan asks the convicts' advocate about the grounds on which he is challenging rejection of the mercy petition (ANI) pic.twitter.com/M6xR2cE5pr
— OTV (@otvnews) March 19, 2020
2012 Delhi gang rape case: Supreme Court dismisses the petition of death row convict Pawan Gupta against the rejection of his mercy plea by the President and seeking stay on execution. (ANI) #NirbhayaVerdict #NirbhayaCaseConvicts #NirbhayaCase pic.twitter.com/ECXww6tESY
— OTV (@otvnews) March 19, 2020
The four convicts - Vinay, Mukesh, Akshay, and Pawan - will now be hanged by the noose on Friday, March 20 at 5:30 AM. for brutally raping and murdering a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, later dubbed as 'Nirbhaya', on December 16, 2012.
The death-row convicts, represented by advocate A.P. Singh, had knocked on the doors of the trial court two days before the execution seeking a stay on their hanging.
Wife of Akshay Singh broke down and fainted in the courtroom as the judge dismissed an application seeking a stay on execution.
After gaining consciousness, she started beating herself with a slipper and said, "I don't want to live. I will kill myself." Her child was sitting beside her as the drama unfolded.
She has filed for a divorce in a local court in Bihar's Aurangabad from her husband. In the divorce plea, she asserted that she does not want to live the life of a widow as her husband is set to be hanged. "My husband is innocent. I want to be legally divorced before he is hanged," she said.
"How will I live now? Please hang me too," Akshay's wife told the court after the pronouncement of order.
After the court dismissed the plea, Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi said that her daughter's soul will now rest in peace and she had got justice seven years after the gruesome gangrape and murder that shook the nation.
"Finally the convicts will be hanged. Now I will get peace," Asha Devi told PTI.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court dismissed the curative petition preferred by Pawan Gupta. "We have gone through the curative petition and the relevant documents, In our opinion, no case is made out within the parameters indicated in the decision of this court in Rupa Ashok Hurra vs Ashok Hurra and Another.... Hence, the curative petition is dismissed," the brief order of the Supreme Court read.
Tihar Jail, meanwhile, prepared the ground to hang the four men Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31).
This is the first time that four men will be hanged together in Tihar Jail, South Asia's largest prison complex that houses more than 16,000 inmates.
A senior prison official said Pawan Jallad, a hangman from Meerut, reported to the Tihar Jail administration on Tuesday evening to prepare for the exercise.
According to the jail manual, the jail superintendent will oversee the testing of the ropes and also inspect the gallows a day before the execution.
This will be followed by a dummy execution -- a dummy or a bag of sand weighing 1.5 times the weight of the prisoner will be hanged and dropped between 1.830 and 2.440 metres to test the rope.
The execution, specifies the Delhi Prison Rules 2018, will take place in the presence of the superintendent, deputy superintendent, medical officer in charge, resident medical officer and the district magistrate or additional district magistrate.
A guard of not less than 10 constables, warders and two head constables, head warders or an equal number from the prison armed guard, will also be present, it states.
The families of the prisoner will not be allowed to witness the executions. All other prisoners will be kept locked till the exercise is over and the bodies removed from the prison.
The manual specifies that a medical officer prepares a report four days ahead of the date of execution, mentioning the length of the drop to be given to the prisoner who is to be executed.
Two spare ropes for each prisoner sentenced to death are kept in reserve. After testing, the rope and other equipment will be locked and sealed in a steel box and kept in charge of deputy superintendent, it states.
If the prisoner wants, a priest of his faith may be allowed.
Also Read: Will Be Happy When Convicts Are Hanged, Nirbhaya’s Mother
On the morning of the execution, the prisoner will be visited by senior officials, including the superintendent, the district magistrate/additional district magistrate and the medical officer, in his cell.
Any documents, including the will of the prisoner can be signed and attested in the presence of the superintendent and the district magistrate or additional district magistrate.
Just before entering the gallows-enclosure, a cotton cap with flap will be put on the prisoner's face so he can't see the gallows, according to jail rules.
The wardens will hold the prisoners and withdraw following a signal from the superintendent. After that, the hangman draws the bolt, the manual states.
The body of the executed prisoner is disposed of according to the requirements of the religion to which the executed prisoner belonged. It will be handed over the family following a post-mortem.
An ambulance shall be used for the transportation of the body to the cremation or burial ground.
On March 5, a trial court here issued fresh warrants for March 20 at 5.30 AM.
Their executions were deferred thrice earlier.
Also Read: Nirbhaya Case: Mukesh Singh Moves SC Seeking Restoration Of His Legal Remedies
The last hanging in Tihar was on February 9, 2013, when Afzal Guru, a resident of Sopore in north Kashmir, was executed at 8 am and buried on the prison premises for his role in the terror attack on Parliament.
(IANS)
