Nirbhaya convict's wife abstains from divorce petition hearing in Aurangabad court

The wife of Akshay Singh, one of the four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case, did not appear in the Aurangabad court for hearing on Thursday in the divorce petition filed by her.

The court, therefore, listed the matter for March 24.

"Punita Devi had filed the petition seeking a divorce from her husband. The presiding officer was not available on March 16 so today's date was set for hearing. The PO said that her presence is required on the date for next hearing following which the decision whether Akshay Singh Thakur will be summoned or not," Mukesh Singh, Punita Devi's lawyer told reporters here.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday had dismissed the plea of Mukesh Singh, challenging trial court order which had dismissed his plea seeking quashing of his death penalty claiming he was not in the city when the incident happened on December 16, 2012.

This comes as 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.

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.