Nirbhaya case: The convicts are in different cells in Delhi's Tihar Jail, being monitored through CCTV
Highlights
- Special ropes for execution being brought from Buxar jail, say sources
- A dummy execution has also been carried out to test the gallows
- Convicts are in different cells and being monitored through CCTV: Sources
The four men convicted in the gang-rape, torture and killing of a young medical student in Delhi in 2012 will be hanged soon, indicate preparations at Tihar Jail in Delhi. Legal options still available to the convicts, however, may stall the process.
Sources in Tihar, Asia's largest prison, say special ropes for the execution are being brought from a jail in Bihar's Buxar, which also sent ropes for the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru in 2013. A dummy execution has also been carried out to test the gallows.
The convicts are all in different cells and being monitored through CCTV, say sources. Arrangements for the hanging are being made in Jail Number 3, where executions take place.
An official in Tihar was quoted as telling news agency ANI that the search is on for a hangman. "We don't have a hangman. We will get one from some other state when needed," news agency ANI quoted an unnamed Tihar Jail official as saying.
Last week, the Delhi government and the centre rejected the mercy request of one of the convicts - Vinay Sharma - and sent it back urging President Ram Nath Kovind to turn it down too, clearing the way for the execution of the four convicts. Now another convict, Akshay Kumar Singh, has filed a review petition. The court has already rejected similar petitions from Vinay Kumar, Mukesh Singh and Pawan Gupta.
After his request was rejected, convict Vinay Kumar wrote to the President that he wanted to withdraw the petition and claimed it was filed without his consent and without supporting documents.
The 23-year-old woman, who came to be known as Nirbhaya or "fearless", died 16 days after the assault, leaving the nation shocked and angry.
The student was raped by six people on the night of December 16, 2012, on a moving bus, and tortured with an iron rod before being thrown out on the road, naked and bleeding.
She died on December 29, 2012, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, where she was admitted after being airlifted from Delhi for treatment.
One of the accused, Ram Singh, hanged himself in the jail and another convict, a juvenile, was sent to a reform facility for three years.