Dummy execution of 2012 Delhi gang-rape case convicts conducted at Tihar

Dummy execution of the convicts of 2012 Delhi gang-rape case was conducted in the jail on Friday, Tihar Jail officials said.

Earlier in the day, Tihar jail authorities had told a Delhi court that the convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case can be hanged separately.

Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana is hearing the convicts' plea seeking a stay on the execution, which is scheduled for February 1.

Public prosecutor Irfan Ahmad, representing Tihar Jail authorities, submitted a status report in the matter and said that the convicts in the matter can be hanged separately and that there is no illegality in it.

Four convicts in the matter -- Akshay Thakur, Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, and Vinay Kumar Sharma -- are scheduled to be hanged on February 1.

Recently, Vinay Sharma has filed a mercy petition in the matter.

Earlier, mercy petition of convict Mukesh was rejected by the President. He later challenged the rejection of his mercy petition in the Supreme Court but to no avail.

The case pertains to the gang-rape and brutalising 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.