New Delhi: Uncertainty again looms over the hanging of the four death row convicts here in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case scheduled February 1 with a second condemned prisoner filing a mercy petition Wednesday before the President and a third convict also moving a curative plea before the Supreme Court.
According to Delhi Prison Rules, none of the four convicts in the same crime can be hanged before the last one has exhausted all legal options including the mercy plea. Also, apex court guidelines stipulate that convicts cannot be hanged until 14 days after their mercy plea has been rejected by the President. In such circumstances, it looks like ‘justice’ to Nirbhaya will be deleted again.
The trial court January 17 issued black warrants for the second time for the execution of all the four convicts – Mukesh Kumar Singh(32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh(31) – in Tihar jail at 6.00am February 1. The court earlier had fixed January 22 as the hanging date on January 7.
Advocate AP Singh, who represents Vinay, said he has filed the mercy petition at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and has got an acknowledgement.
“I have filed the mercy petition for Vinay before the President. I have submitted it through hand,” Singh stated. The apex court January 14 dismissed the curative petition of Vinay leaving him with the option to file the mercy plea.
Tihar jail authorities will now have to move the trial court and inform it about Vinay’s mercy plea and seek postponement of the black warrant.
As of now only Mukesh has exhausted all his legal remedies including the clemency plea which was dismissed January 17 by President Ram Nath Kovind and the appeal against the rejection was thrown out by the Supreme Court Wednesday.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice R Banumathi held that ‘quick consideration’ and ‘swift rejection’ of Mukesh’s mercy petition does not suggest non-application of mind or it being pre-determined.
Akshay approached the apex court Wednesday with a curative petition which is listed for consideration in-chamber before a five-judge bench Thursday and if his plea is dismissed, he also has the option to move a mercy plea before the President. He is the third convict to move the curative plea after Mukesh and Vinay.
Akshay contended that capital punishment is being awarded by courts as ‘panacea’ in the face of public pressure and public opinion violence against women.
Pawan, the fourth convict, is yet to file a curative plea and he is also likely to avail of this last legal recourse available to a person in a court of law to escape the gallows.
The three convicts other than Mukesh can also move the apex court against rejection of mercy plea by the President as and when this situation arises.
After Wednesday’s developments, Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi said even the court understands that the convicts are filing pleas one after the other just to delay the hanging.
“The court is doing its duty and I am hopeful they will be hanged February 1. I will definitely get justice. This was a long fight and it will continue. I have been following the legal process for seven years. I believe in law. I am hopeful that now we will get justice and they will be hanged,” she told reporters at the apex court lawns.
Against the backdrop of the apparent delaying tactics by the convicts in the Nirbhaya case, the Centre recently moved the top court for fixing a deadline of seven days for execution of death penalty of condemned prisoners after issuance of black warrant.
The curative petition of Akshay will be taken up by a bench comprising Justices NV Ramana, Arun Mishra, RF Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan.
“The hollow claim that the death penalty creates a special kind of deterrence which is not caused by life imprisonment and that and life imprisonment amounts to ‘forgiving’ the criminal is backed by nothing more than a barely masked need to justify vengeance and retribution,” the plea said.
PTI