Tihar Jail to conduct 'Dummy execution' of Nirbhaya rapists before Jan 22 hanging date

Tihar Jail authorities will conduct a dummy execution of the Nirbhaya gangrape convicts in coming days ahead of their execution on January 22. The dummy execution will be conducted in Jail 3, the place where they will be executed on the designated date. "Tihar will conduct dummy execution in the coming days but not today. It will be done in jail 3, where the execution will take place," said Tihar Jail administration in a statement.

At the time of the dummy execution, the executive engineer of PWD, superintendent and other jail officials will be present, it said. All four convicts in the Nirbhaya case will be executed on January 22 at 7 am in jail cell 3 in Tihar Jail, the same place where Afzal Guru, the terrorist convicted Parliament attack case, was hanged. The officials said they will be hanged together.

A court in Delhi issued death warrants against all four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case. The hangman will be called from Uttar Pradesh Prison Department.

'Ready to hang the four convicts'

After Delhi's Patiala House Court on Tuesday issued the death warrant for the execution of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case, Hangman Pawan from Meerut said that he is ready to hang the rapists of Nirbhaya. In his statement given to a news agency after the verdict, he stated that he is ready to hang the rapists but has not received any communication from the jail administration. "I'm ready to hang the four convicts. Nobody from jail admin has yet contacted me. If I receive the order, I will definitely go. It'll really give a great sigh of relief to me, to Nirbhaya's parents and to everyone," he said.

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Nirbhaya case

A 23-year-old paramedic student Nirbhaya was gang-raped inside a running bus by six people 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 injuries a few days later. Out of the six convicts, one 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 upheld the Delhi High Court's verdict in 2017.

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(with ANI inputs)