Sources in Tihar jail have said that the convicts to be hanged in the Nirbhaya case – Akshay Thakur, Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma – have been silent on their last wishes, haven’t said anything about meeting their family for the last time nor have made plans about bequeathing their property to anyone, reports NDTV. This is being seen as yet another delaying tactic to buy more time.
Earlier, the convicts were to be hanged on January 22, 2020, but a mercy plea petition filed by one of the convicts meant that the execution was delayed to February 1, 2020. The present rules state that once a mercy plea is rejected by the President, convicts are given 14 days’ time until their execution.
Last week, Pawan Gupta knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court saying he was under 18 at the time of the crime, which was promptly rejected.
A 23-year-old physiotherapy student was brutally gangraped in a moving bus in Delhi in 2012 by six men, which included Ram Singh, who later committed suicide in jail in 2013, and a minor who was released after spending three years in a juvenile prison. The minor accused is said to be working as a cook in a restaurant in an isolated town in South India.
