Nirbhaya Convicts To Hang On March 3: Trial Court

New Delhi: The four convicts sentenced to death in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case will be hanged at 6 am on March 3, the trial court said after issuing their death warrant on Monday.

This is the third death warrant issued by the court. The two earlier ones could not be carried out as the convicts took it in turns to use every legal option available to them.

Monday’s death warrant was issued after the Tihar jail authorities informed the trial court that three of the four convicts — Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta, Mukesh Singh and Akshay Singh — have exhausted all legal options and none of them have any appeals pending in any court at the moment.

That still leaves one convict who has not filed a curative petition or mercy plea to the President. But they have also exhausted the one week allowed by the High Court to exercise all their legal option and will need to go to the top court to get an extension.

“I hope this will be the final date for hanging,” an NDTV report quoted Nirbhaya’s mother as saying. She added that she was “very happy” with the court’s decision.

Meanwhile, one of the convicts, Vinay Sharma, has started a hunger strike in Tihar jail after his petition challenging President Ram Nath Kovind’s rejection of his mercy plea was turned down by the Supreme Court last week.

The convict had claimed that the President had not factored in his mental illness following torture in jail. The Centre had produced a medical report dated February 12, which showed that he was mentally sound.