Nirbhaya's rapists to be executed on Jan 22; Tihar jail seeks hangman from UP prison

IANS Photo

New Delhi: Hours after a Delhi court on Tuesday issued death warrants against all four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, the Tihar jail officials said that it would write to Uttar Pradesh prisons to seek service of a hangman. 

The jail officials added that it would also inform the UP prisons about the date and time of execution of all four convicts as decided by the court on January 7. Patiala House Court Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora while issuing the death warrants directed the convicts to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am at Delhi's Tihar Jail.

The four convicts are Pawan Gupta, Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur. The convicts` lawyers have said that they will move a curative petition in the Supreme Court. The convicts can also submit a mercy petition to the President.

Earlier on December 13, former legal advisor of Tihar jail, Sunil Gupta told IANS, "In 2013, during the execution of Afzal Guru it was not necessary that only a hangman will pull the lever. An experienced official pulled the lever and carried out the hanging but now as per the new Delhi jail manual of 2018 this can`t be done. A trained hangman is required to carry out the hanging as per the new manual."

Since it is a sensitive matter, sources said that the Tihar jail administration have been trying to contact all the prisons across the country to know if they have an 'experienced' and 'trained' hangman.

Speaking about the same, the UP Prison authorities had earlier told the IANS that they had received a request letter from the Tihar prison through fax on December 9 seeking services of the two hangmen of UP, as they do not have a hangman there. He had then added that the hangmen would be provided to the Tihar jail authorities as and when required. He said the date and timings were not mentioned by the Tihar jail authorities so the two hangmen have been told to remain prepared in case they were called for the execution of convicts anytime soon.

The Nirbhaya case, that shook the entire nation, took place on December 16, 2012, when six persons, including a juvenile, brutally raped a 23-year-old paramedic in a moving bus. She was accompanied by a friend who was also beaten up and later, both of them were thrown out of the vehicle. The girl had suffered critical injuries and later died during treatment. The brutality of the crime led to national outrage and a new legislation was formed to deal with such heinous crimes.