FINALLY: Four convicts hanged to death in Delhi 2012 gangrape and murder case at 5:30 AM

Seven years and three months later, on March 20 four convicts in Delhi 2012 rape and murder case were brought to justice and hung to death in Tihar jail. Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) were executed on Friday at 5.30 AM, after a long delay attempt. executions were carried out after men exhausted every possible legal avenue to escape gallows. ir despairing attempts only pushed inevitable by less than two months after initial date of hanging was set for January 22, 2020. 

This was first time that four men were executed toger in Tihar Jail, South Asia's largest prison complex that houses more than 16,000 inmates. According to jail manual, jail superintendent oversaw testing of ropes and also inspected gallows a day before execution. This was followed by a dummy execution--a dummy or a bag of sand weighing 1.5 times weight of prisoner was hanged and dropped between 1.830 and 2.440 meters to test rope.

READ| Nirbhaya Case: Tihar jail asks hangman to report 3 days ahead of rapists' execution

A guard of t less than 10 constables, warders, and two head constables, head warders or an equal number from prison armed guard, were also present. families of prisoner were t t permitted to witness executions. All or prisoners will be kept locked till exercise is over and bodies removed from prison.

Hundreds of people gared outside Tihar central jail ahead of execution on Friday morning, carrying placards in joy to celebrate historic moment. Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed plea filed by three of four death row convicts in Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case challenging trial court order declining to stay ir execution scheduled for early Friday morning. Three hours prior to execution, Supreme Court on Friday put a full stop on  Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case by dismissing a plea of one of four death row convicts against rejection of his second mercy plea by President Ram Nath Kovind. 

Nirbhaya Case

A 23-year-old physiorapy intern, who came to be kwn as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was gang-raped and brutally assaulted in a moving bus in South Delhi on December 16, 2012. She died after a fortnight.  Six people, including four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused. Ram Singh, sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail days after trial began in case. juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional.

READ| 'Imperishable deterrent': SG Tushar Mehta hails judiciary on Nirbhaya convicts' hanging

READ| Nirbhaya's parents overjoyed as justice dawns upon after seven years

(With PTI inputs)