In the Nirbhaya case, the Patiala House Court today issued a third death warrant to the four culprits. The Additional Sessions Judge has ordered the execution on 6 March at 6 am. The court was also informed that the culprit Vinay Sharma is going on a hunger strike in Tihar. After the verdict, lawyer of culprits, AP Singh said that there is still a lot of legal option left for the convicts. If they were not allowed to use it, it would be miscellaneous of justice.
During the trial on Monday, the convict Mukesh Singh told the court that he does not want Vrinda Grover to plead on his behalf. The court then appointed advocate Ravi Kazi for him. At the same time, Vinay's lawyer told the court that my client is mentally ill, so he cannot be hanged at this time. Pawan Gupta's lawyer said that the client wants to file a mercy petition with the curator and the President in the Supreme Court. Of the four criminals, Pawan alone has options for curative and mercy petitions. A lawyer for convict Akshay Thakur said that his client is preparing to apply a new mercy petition to the President.
The victim's parents and the Delhi government had filed an application to issue a new death warrant. On 15 February, while hearing the Centre's plea for hanging the culprits separately, the Supreme Court had said that pending the Centre's plea there would be no effect on the trial court issuing a new death warrant for execution.
The Patiala House Court issued a black warrant for hanging all four convicts in Tihar Jail at 7 am on January 22 last month. However, they could not be hanged due to the mercy petition of a convict pending with the President. Later, on January 17, the trial date of the convicts was set for February 1. But on 31 January, the court postponed it indefinitely.
