Published 22:32 IST, March 2nd 2020
'People losing faith in judiciary': Asha Devi after execution of convicts deferred again
Patiala House Court deferred the hanging of the convicts in the Nirbhaya rape case until further notice after one of the convicts filed a mercy petition.
Asha Devi, the mother of the Nirbhaya victim said she was disappointed with the third deferral of the hanging date and claimed that the convicts are able to get whatever they want. Her remarks came after a Delhi Court deferred the hanging of all four convicts in the case since one of the convicts appealed to the President for mercy.
'People losing hope in judiciary'
All four convicts were supposed to be hanged at 6 am on Tuesday, March 3. However, Pawan Kumar Gupta filed a mercy petition to President Ram Nath Kovind. After the deferral, she said, "They are misusing the law and government should look into it, how many times the court will postpone its own decision? The way the execution of the convicts is getting delayed, it is making an impact on society and people now are losing hope in the judiciary."
Asha Devi also questioned the time taken to execute the convicts. "Why is the court taking so much time to execute its own order to hang the convicts? Repeated postponing of the execution shows the failure of our system. Our entire system supports criminals."
The mercy petitions of three convicts -- Mukesh Kumar Singh, Vinay Kumar Sharma, and Akshay Kumar -- have already been dismissed by the President. Pawan Gupta was the last to file a curative petition in the Supreme Court.
On February 17, the Patiala House Court had ordered that the convicts be hanged on March 3 after issuing fresh death warrants. This is the third such date after the previous two - January 17 and January 31 were deferred by petitions were filed by the convicts.
Nirbhaya rape and murder case
A 23-year-old paramedic student 'Nirbhaya' was gang-raped inside a running bus by six persons on December 16, 2012, in Delhi. The victim was severely assaulted and thrown out on the road along with her male friend and succumbed to her injuries a few days later.
Out of the six convicts, one reportedly committed suicide in prison, while another, a juvenile, served maximum punishment of three years in a reform home and was set free in 2015. The remaining four rapists were convicted and handed the death penalty by a trial court in 2013, confirmed by the Delhi High Court in March 2014. The Supreme Court had upheld the Delhi High Court's verdict in 2017.
Updated 22:32 IST, March 2nd 2020