Can't understand delay in hanging of Nirbhaya convicts: Swati Maliwal

New Delhi [India], Feb 18 (ANI): Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Chairperson Swati Maliwal on Tuesday said expressed dismay over the delay in the hanging of the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape case and said that she could not fathom the reasons for the delay.
"This is the third time that death warrants have been issued against the convicts. I do not understand why this is being delayed so much. How come these convicts who have committed such heinous crime are saved by their lawyers on every occasion," Maliwal told ANI.
On Monday, while hearing a petition by the state and Nirbhaya's parents, Delhi's Patiala House court had ordered the four convicts to be hanged on March 3 at 6 am.
This is the third time a death warrant is being issued by the court. The convicts have earlier used every legal remedy to appeal against the death penalty.
"A mockery is being made of the courts and the whole legal system. Only these people have human rights and what about Nirbhaya? What about her mother who is knocking at the doors our judicial system?" Maliwal said.
Earlier, Delhi High Court on February 5 had granted a week's time to the four convicts to avail of all legal remedies, while underlining that the convicts cannot be hanged separately since they were convicted for the same crime.
A Delhi Court had earlier issued a death warrant against the four convicts -- Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, and Mukesh Singh -- on January 7 and they were scheduled to be executed on January 22 at Tihar Jail. Later, the execution was suspended indefinitely by a Delhi court.
The case pertains to the gang-rape and brutalizing of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus in Delhi on the night of December 16, 2012 by six people including a juvenile. The victim died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.
One of the five accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail during the trial of the case. (ANI)