New Delhi: National Commission for Women chief Rekha Sharma on Wednesday condemned what she called were the Delhi government’s “delaying tactics” in the execution of the Delhi 2012 gangrape-murder case convicts and urged the authorities to hang them on January 22, as ordered by a local court early this month.
Her remarks came after the Delhi government informed the high court that execution of the four death row convicts in the Delhi 2012 gangrape and murder case will not take place the date stipulated by a trial court as one of them, Mukesh Kumar (32), has filed a mercy plea before the President.
The four convicts, Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Kumar (32), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25), were to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail. A Delhi court had issued their death warrants on January 7.
“These are delaying tactics and I really condemn it. They should be hanged on the date given by the court, which is January 22. Why has the Delhi government suddenly woken up in the matter,” the National Commission for Women (NCW) chief said.
Earlier, Delhi government and prison authorities told the high court that as per the rules they will have to wait for the mercy plea to be decided before executing the death warrant.
Delhi government’s standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra told the bench that since Mukesh has moved a mercy plea, they have to wait for the other co-convicts to exhaust their mercy pleas as well.
Recommendation to reject
Meanwhile, the Delhi government on Wednesday recommended rejecting the mercy plea filed by Mukesh Singh, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, and forwarded it to the Lieutenant Governor at “lightning speed”, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said.
He said the recommendation on the mercy petition of 32-year-old Singh will now be sent to the Union home ministry.
The decision comes a day after Singh filed the plea.
“We learnt that a petition has been filed and we have recommended its rejection and sent it at lightning speed to the LG. There will be no delay from our side, we can assure you that,” he said in response to a question.
The Delhi High Court Wednesday declined to entertain Singh’s plea against the death warrant issued by a trial court and gave him the liberty to challenge it in sessions court.
A bench of Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal said there was no error in the trial court’s January 7 order issuing the death warrant against him.
The Delhi government informed the high court during the hearing that execution of the convicts will not take place on January 22 as a mercy plea has been filed by one of them, Mukesh Singh.
