Delhi HC Reserves Order On Centre's Plea Challenging Stay On Execution Of Nirbhaya Convicts

The Delhi High Court on Sunday reserved its judgment on the Centre's plea challenging the stay on the execution of four death-row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.

Justice Suresh Kait said it will pass an order after all the parties concluded their arguments.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told Justice Kait that convict Pawan Gupta's move of not filing curative or mercy petition is deliberate, calculated inaction.

"There is deliberate, calculated and well thought of design to frustrate mandate of law," Mehta told the court.

Also Read | Nirbhaya Convicts Have Calculated Design To Frustrate Mandate Of Law: Centre to Delhi HC

Four convicts in the case were to be hanged on Saturday but a city court indefinitely postponed their hanging.

The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.

Six people -- Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta, Ram Singh and a juvenile -- were named as accused.

Also Read | Nirbhaya Gangrape-Murder Case: What The Tihar Jail Manual Says About Execution

The trial of the five adult men began in a special fast-track court in March 2013.

The prime accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in Tihar jail days after the trial began. The juvenile, who was said to be the most brutal of the attackers, was put in a correctional home for three years.

He was released in 2015 and sent to an undisclosed location amid concerns over a threat to his life. The juvenile, when released, was 20 years old.

Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay and Pawan were convicted and sentenced to death back in September 2013.

(With agency inputs)