AGENCIES, New Delhi: All the four convicts in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case were hanged at 5.30 am on Friday. The Delhi High Court dismissed the last-minute petition against the hanging that the convicts had filed on Thursday night.
Convicted in the horrific rape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student more than seven years ago, Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Singh have been taking turns to file a series of petitions after their first death warrant was issued on January 7.
Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma moved to the higher court after the trial court in Delhi dismissed the petition for a freeze on the execution early on Thursday afternoon. The court said they have exhausted all legal options. All three had filed another series of petitions in the Supreme Court, which also got dismissed on Thursday.
At the Delhi High Court, the shortcomings of the petition drew the wrath of the judges, who called it a shoddy job. “Do you have the permission to file this petition?” Justice Manmohan asked the advocate representing the convicts.
The execution date was fixed after repeated cancellations as the convicts tried every legal avenue to buy time. Two days ago, three of the four convicts had filed petitions in the trial court asking for a stay on the execution, which were dismissed.