A Delhi court has issued fresh death warrantsagainst the four convicts of the Delhi gang rape and murder case in 2012 andset a new date for their hanging on March 3 at 6 am.
This is the third time that death warrants have been issued after the previous two have stayed which were set on January 22 and February 1. The hangings were stayed because of pending legal options of the convicts- Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, and Akshay Kumar.
Reacting to the verdict, the victim's mother saidthat this time she is hopeful that the date is final and will not be postponed.She said, "I am satisfied with this verdict. I never lost faith. Finally, wehave another date and hope they will be hanged."
Additional Session Judge Dharmender Rana set thedate at the Patiala House Court for the execution after the Supreme Courtgranted liberty to the authorities to approach the trial court for issuance ofa fresh death warrant as all legal remedies moved by the convicts were disposedof.
The counsel of one of the convicts, Pawan Gupta, during the hearing said the court that he wanted to move a curative petition before the Supreme Court and the mercy plea against the death sentence before the President.
The court had earlier in the day reserved the orderafter hearings during which Mukesh Singh told the court that he does not wantto be represented by advocate Vrinda Grover. The court then appointed advocateRavi Qazi to represent Mukesh.
The court was also informed that another death row convict, Vinay Sharma, is on a hunger strike in Tihar jail. Vinay was assaulted in jail and has head injuries, his lawyer told the court, adding that he was suffering from acute mental illness and hence the death sentence cannot be carried out. The court directed the Tihar jail superintendent to take appropriate care of Vinay as per law.
