The four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case will not be hanged on Saturday as scheduled after a Delhi court postponed their execution indefinitely giving the condemned prisoners a reprieve for the second time in two weeks.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana while passing the order on Friday on the plea by the convicts seeking adjournment of the executions "sine die" (with no appointed date for resumption), however, took note of their "dilatory tactics" but did not comment on them.
Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31), who are lodged in Tihar jail, were ordered to be hanged on February 1 at 6 am.
With Advocate A P Singh, the counsel for Pawan, Vinay and Akshay contending that their legal remedies were yet to be exhausted, the hanging date remains uncertain.
As of now, only Mukesh has exhausted all his legal remedies including the clemency plea which was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17 and the appeal against the rejection was thrown out by the Supreme Court on January 29.
Reacting in anguish to the delay in the hanging, Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi said she will continue her fight till the convicts are hanged.
Devi told reporters her "hopes are dashed" but she will continue her fight till the convicts are hanged.
"These convicts have no right to live. We keep getting disappointed by the system. I will continue my fight till the convicts are hanged," she said.
This is for the second time that the execution of the death warrants has been deferred. The first order for execution of death sentence, issued on January 7 for January 22, was stayed on January 17. The second warrant, issued on January 17, for February 1 was stayed on Friday.
The Tihar jail authorities challenged the application of the convicts, saying it was not maintainable and they can be hanged separately. But the argument was not accepted by the court.
The convicts' lawyer argued that rules dictate that when one convict's plea is pending the others cannot be hanged.
In the order, the judge noted that if an appeal or an application is made by only one convict, the execution of sentence shall be postponed in the case of co-convicts also.
"Without commenting upon the dilatory tactics adopted by the convicts, suffice it would be to state that seeking redressal of one's grievances through procedure established by law is the hallmark of any civilised society. The courts of this country cannot afford to adversely discriminate any convict, including death row convict, in pursuit of his legal remedies, by turning a Nelson's eye towards him."
She told the court on Friday, "If the mercy plea of Vinay allowed, it will open a chance for me to file another mercy plea. In Yakub Memon's case there were talks of filing second mercy plea. It's wrong to say that there's no legal remedy left."
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