English
New Delhi: As a Delhi court issued a new death warrant against the four convicts of the Nirbhaya rape case, the Tihar jail authorities have started fresh preparations for the execution scheduled to take place on February 1 at 6 AM. All four convicts — Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Singh, Akshay Kumar Singh and Pawan Gupta — are now kept on suicide watch throughout the day.
According to reports, their diet will be fixed again to maintain a standard weight parameter required for executing the death penalty.
Special attention is being paid to Vinay Sharma as according to reports, he fell unconscious inside his cell on Wednesday. Reports said he has become restless, aggressive and has been refusing food. There have been rumours of Vinay attempting suicide, but jail authorities didn’t confirm.
The convicts will be allowed to meet their family members and lawyers twice a week.
The new death warrant was issued hours after President Kovind Kovind rejected the mercy plea filed by Mukesh Singh. After the earlier death warrant was issued, Mukesh filed a curative plea with the Supreme Court, which got rejected. After that, he moved the mercy plea which was also rejected on Friday. Meanwhile, the execution date of January 22 had to be postponed as according to the rules, the execution can take place only 14 days after a decision is taken on mercy plea.
The other three convicts can still file mercy pleas.
What happened on Dec 16, 2012?
On the intervening night of December 16 and December 17, 2012, Nirbhaya, a 23-year-old paramedic student, was brutally gang-raped and assaulted inside a moving bus near national capital’s Munirka area by six persons before being dumped on the road. Two weeks later on December 29, she succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital.
Within 48 hours of the crime, the Delhi police arrested all the six accused and charged them with sexual assault and murder. While the prime accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide inside Tihar Jail, one of the convicts, a minor, who was just short of 18 when the crime took place appeared before the juvenile justice court and released after three years in a reform home.
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