Nirbhaya case convicts had moved courts to escape the gallows

New Delhi [India], Jan 7 (ANI): The four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case, against whom death warrant was issued by a Delhi court on Tuesday, had moved courts over the past seven years to escape the gallows.
Pawan Gupta, a fruit seller, had moved the Supreme Court claiming that he was a juvenile at the time of the offence in 2012 and should be treated under the Juvenile Justice Act. The court, however, rejected his plea.
Akshay Thakur, a school dropout, hailed from Bihar and came to Delhi in 2011. He was the conductor of the bus in which the crime was committed and had fled the city. Thakur was arrested a few days later from his native village in Aurangabad district. He had claimed that he was not in Delhi when the brutal incident took place but the probe revealed he was on the bus and involved in the crime.
Vinay Sharma was a fitness trainer and a resident of Ravidass camp, a slum in south Delhi. In 2016, Sharma had attempted to commit suicide by hanging himself in the Tihar Jail. He first took painkillers and then tried to hang himself with a towel in the cell.
Last December, Sharma had made a plea to President Ram Nath Kovind seeking immediate withdrawal of mercy petition. Through his counsel AP Singh, the convict claimed that the mercy plea sent to President Kovind by the Home Ministry was not signed by him.
Mukesh Singh is the younger brother of Ram Singh, driver of the bus who had allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail in 2013. Mukesh Singh was part-time bus driver and a cleaner. The two brothers also lived in Ravidass camp.
In 2013, a fast-track court in Delhi had held the four men guilty in the case. Their conviction was also upheld by the Delhi High Court and Supreme Court later.
In May 2017, the four convicts had moved the Supreme Court against a Delhi High Court order which confirmed the capital punishment awarded to them by the trial court. The top court also upheld their death penalty.
In a voluminous judgment, the bench of the top court had held the attitude of offenders as "bestial proclivity" and had said, "It sounds like a story from a different world where humanity is treated with irreverence."
The Patiala House Court on Tuesday ruled that all the four death row convicts will be hanged on January 22 at 7 am.
Additional Session Judge Satish Kumar Arora issued the death warrant with the convicts produced before the court through video conferencing. The court also said that convicts can use their legal remedies within 14 days.
The four, along with two others including Ram Singh and a juvenile, had raped and brutally tortured a 23-year-old paramedic student on a moving bus in south Delhi on the night of December 16, 2012.
The victim, who was accompanied by her friend, was thrown out of the bus. Thirteen days later, the victim succumbed to her injuries on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.
The juvenile was sent to a reform facility and released after three years. (ANI)