Delhi court dismiss Tihar jail plea seeking fresh death warrants for convicts: Nirbhaya case

New Delhi, Feb 7 (HS): A Delhi court Friday dismissed the plea filed by Tihar jail authorities seeking a fresh date for the execution of the four death row convicts in Nirbhaya case. Citing the Delhi High Court’s February 5 order, the court observed that it was “criminally sinful” to execute the convicts when the law permits them to live. “I concur with counsel for convicts that death warrants cannot be executed merely on the basis of surmises and conjectures. The application is bereft of merit. Same is dismissed. The state is at liberty to move appropriate application as and when required,” said Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana.Delhi High court on February 5 permitted the four death row convicts to exercise their legal remedies within seven days. Rana said that the authorities would act as per the law. The trial court had last week stayed, “till further orders”, the execution of the four convicts of Nirbhaya case including Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31), who are lodged in Tihar Jail.As the convicts had been seeking legal remedies resulting in delay in the execution, the Centre had last week told the High Court that “there is a deliberate, calculated, well-thought of design to frustrate the process of law.”Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is likely to hear the Centre’s plea challenging the Delhi HC order rejecting its plea to executive the convicts separately and upholding the stay on their execution. Hindusthan Samachar/Manish