"Dummy Execution" With Sacks Done At Tihar For Nirbhaya Convicts' Hanging

A "dummy execution" was carried out at Delhi's Tihar Jail on Sunday to prepare for the execution on January 22 of four men on death sentence for the 2012 gang-rape and murder of Nirbhaya.

Convicts Pawan Gupta, Akshay, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh will be hanged at 7 am on January 22, a Delhi court had said earlier this month, signing a death warrant.

The "dummy execution" was done by the jail authorities to test the gallows using sacks filled with debris and stones according to the weight of the four men. The test was done at Jail 3 of Tihar, Asia's largest prison complex, where the  convicts will be executed. Jail cell 3 was where Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was hanged in 2013.

The four men will be hanged together, a first in India.

The Uttar Pradesh Prison authority has confirmed that Pawan Jallad from Meerut will be sent to hang the four convicts, a senior jail official was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

The jail authorities were also holding conversations with the convicts on a daily basis to ensure that they were in a good mental state, the official said.

The Supreme Court will hear the curative petition, the last legal option before death sentence, of two of the convicts tomorrow.

Vinay Sharma and Mukesh had approached the top court last week, appealing against their death sentence. 

(With inputs from PTI)