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A Delhi court has postponed execution of death warrants of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case till further orders. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana passed the order on plea by the convicts seeking a stay on their execution on Saturday, February 1.
The court had reserved its order in the pre-lunch session.
The court did not agree with the Tihar jail authorities which had challenged the application of three condemned prisoners in the case seeking a stay on their execution.
The black warrants for execution of the death sentence against Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma, Akshay Kumar and Mukesh Kumar Singh, were issued on January 17.
The convicts’ lawyer argued that rules dictate that when one convict’s plea is pending the others cannot be hanged.
Advocate A P Singh, representing the convicts — Pawan, Vinay and Akshay — urged the court to adjourn the executions ‘sine die’ (with no appointed date for resumption). Vinay’s mercy plea before the president is pending.
Mukesh mercy plea was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17. The appeal against the rejection was thrown out by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The trial court on January 17 issued black warrants for the second time for the execution of all the four convicts in the case in Tihar jail at 6 am on February 1.
Earlier, on January 7, the court had fixed January 22 as the hanging date.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in tweet expressed sadness over the delay in hanging
मुझे दुख है की निर्भया के अपराधी कानून के दाँव पेंच ढूंढ कर फांसी को टाल रहे है। उनको फांसी तुरंत होनी चाहिए। हमे हमारे कानून में संशोधन करने की सख्त जरूरत है ताकि रेप के मामलों में फांसी 6 महीने के अंदर हो।
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 31, 2020
