Delhi court begins hearing in plea seeking fresh death warrants against Nirbhaya convicts

A Delhi court on Monday began hearing on a plea seeking the issuance of fresh death warrants against all four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case.

Tihar Jail's law officer handed over a status report to the court.

Special Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan apprised the court about the current status of the case and also stated that three out of four convicts have already exhausted their legal remedies.

And as of date, there is no petition pending in any court, Mohan said.

He also mentioned that Delhi High Court had given seven-day time to the convicts and that period is over.

A Delhi court had adjourned the hearing for February 17 on the plea of the state and Nirbhaya's parents seeking issuance of death warrant as a petition challenging the rejection of mercy plea of convict Vinay Kumar Sharma was pending before the Supreme Court.

On Friday, the apex court had dismissed Sharma's petition.

President Ram Nath Kovind had also rejected the mercy petitions of convicts Akshay Thakur and Mukesh Singh.

The Delhi High Court on February 5 granted a week's time to the four convicts to avail of all legal remedies available to them and said that the convicts cannot be hanged separately since they were convicted for the same crime.

A Delhi Court had issued a death warrant against the four convicts -- Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, and Mukesh Singh -- on January 7 and they were scheduled to be executed on January 22 at Tihar Jail. Later, the execution was suspended indefinitely by a Delhi court.

The case pertains to the gang-rape and brutalizing of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in Delhi. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.

One of the five adults accused, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail during the trial of the case.