In the 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder case, one of the four convicts, Vinay Kumar Sharma, on Thursday filed a curative petition before the Supreme Court. This comes within 48 hours after a Delhi court fixed the date for hanging the convicts. On January 7, Delhi's Patiala House Court Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora had issued a death warrant against the four convicts--Vinay, Pawan, Akshay, and Mukesh Singh, and they are scheduled to be executed on January 22 at 7 am in the Tihar Jail premises.
Besides Vinay, other convicts Pawan Gupta, Akshay Thakur, and Mukesh Singh are facing the gallows. The court after issuing a black warrant in their name gave them two weeks` time to file both the curative and mercy petition. The convicts` lawyers had earlier said that they will move a curative petition in the Supreme Court. The convicts can also submit a mercy petition to the President.
A curative petition is the last judicial resort available for redressal of grievances. It is decided by the judges in-chamber. The mercy petition, on the other hand, is filed before the President who has the power to commute it to life imprisonment.
The Tihar jail officials said that it would write to Uttar Pradesh prisons to seek service of a hangman. Since it is a sensitive matter, sources said that the Tihar jail administration has been trying to contact all the prisons across the country to know if they have an 'experienced' and 'trained' hangman.
As soon as the judge had pronounced the verdict, the convicts, who were produced before court through video conferencing, broke into tears.
Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi who very courageously fought the case erupted with joy and said that her struggle of seven years has finally ended. She said that her daughter has got justice and the hanging of four convicts will empower the women of the country. "My daughter has got justice. Execution of the four convicts will empower the women of the country. This decision will strengthen the trust of people in the judicial system," said Asha Devi. Lauding courts decision Nirbhaya's father Badrinath Singh said, "I am happy with the court's decision. This decision will instil fear in people who commit such crimes.''
The case pertains to the gang-rape of a woman by six persons on a moving bus in the national capital on the night of December 16, 2012. The victim, who was later given the name Nirbhaya, died at a hospital in Singapore where she had been airlifted for medical treatment.
