Nirbhaya case: Tihar officials to conduct dummy execution of convicts today

The four convicts in the 2012 case are scheduled to be hanged at 5:30 am on March 20

The Tihar Jail officials will conduct the dummy execution of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case today. Hangman Pawan has reached Tihar jail for the March 20 hanging of the convicts.

Meanwhile, Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four convicts, on Tuesday filed another curative petition before the Supreme Court, claiming that at the time of committing the offence, he was a minor and thereby, his death sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment.

A Tihar Jail official said that another convict Akshay on Tuesday filed a second mercy petition to the jail authorities, addressed to the President of India. This will also be forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) through Delhi government, the official stated.

The four convicts in the 2012 case -- Mukesh Singh, Akshay Singh Thakur, Pawan Gupta, and Vinay Sharma -- are scheduled to be hanged at 5:30 am on March 20.

A Delhi court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by Mukesh Singh seeking quashing of death penalty claiming that he was not in Delhi when the crime was committed.

The case pertains to the brutal gang-rape and killing 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 the national capital. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.