Nirbhaya case: Death warrant issued, all 4 rapists to be hanged at 7 AM on Jan 22

New Delhi: Delhi’s Patiala House court on Tuesday issued death warrant to all 4 death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case. The death row convicts are set to be hanged on January 22 at 7 AM in the morning.

It comes as a great relief for Nirbhaya’s parents who ran from pillar to post for last 7 years to get justice for their daughter.

Additional Session Judge Satish Kumar Arora issued the death warrant in the presence of all convicts, who were produced before the court through video conferencing.

However, as per reports, the convicts still reserve the right to challenge this verdict. Some other options like mercy plea and curative petition can still be exercised by convicts, suggest reports.

The court had on December 20 reserved the order on an application filed by Pawan Kumar Gupta’s father till today.

Earlier in the day, the court reserved the order on the plea of parents of Nirbhaya seeking issuance of death warrant against all the four convicts in the case.

The court heard the plea of parents of the 2012 Delhi gang-rape victim seeking to expedite the procedure to hang all four convicted in the case and also seeking issuance of death warrant against them.

It was informed by the lawyers of the convicts that they are in the process of filing the curative plea.

On Monday, the court had dismissed an application filed by the father of one of the death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya rape case, who had questioned the credibility of the sole witness by claiming that he was “tutored” and sought the registration of FIR against him.

The court had on December 20 reserved the order on an application filed by Pawan Kumar Gupta’s father till today. The petition had stated that the girl’s friend committed perjury for giving false testimony in the court.

The sole eye-witness was accompanying the 23-year-old girl when she was raped and murdered by six men on a moving bus on December 16, 2012.

Besides Pawan Kumar Gupta, three others – Akshay, Vinay, and Mukesh are facing the gallows in the case.

The main accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail during the trial. Another accused was a minor at the time of the commission of the crime and was sent to a reform facility and released after three years.

All the four convicts had earlier knocked at the doors of the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court order of March 2014 which had confirmed the capital punishment awarded to them by the trial court on September 13, 2013.

However, the top court also dismissed their appeals after finding no merit.

(With inputs from ANI)