Hundreds of residents along the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir were evacuated to safer zones after Pakistani shelling following Indian airstrikes on terror targets in Pakistan. The shelling killed 12 people, including four children and two women, and injured over 50. The evacuations come amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that left 26 civilians dead. The government has provided temporary shelter for those evacuated.
Nirbhaya's father expressed hope that the convicts will be hanged this month.
A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as "Nirbhaya (the fearless one)", was raped and assaulted by six men inside a bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012, before being thrown out of the moving vehicle.
Pawan Gupta is the only convict among the four who has not yet filed the curative petition and other legal remedies available to him.
The three convicts who approached the ICJ are Akshay Singh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma. The International Court of Justice, sometimes called the World Court, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.
The convicts can also avail the constitutional remedy of filing mercy pleas with the President.
The mercy petitions of three convicts -- Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay -- have already been dismissed by the President.
The four convicts are scheduled to be hanged at 5:30 am on March 20.
The family members of the convicts, on the hand, held placards stating that "five people cannot be hanged for the death of one person".
Her protests come right after the trial court offered Pawan Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in the case, saying a condemned convict is entitled to legal aide till his last breath.
The apex court had on May 5, 2017 upheld the verdict of the Delhi high court and the trial court awarding capital punishment to four convicts - Mukesh, 29, Pawan Gupta, 22, Vinay Sharma, 23, and Akshay Kumar Singh, 31, -- in the sensational December 2012 case that related to gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic student in Delhi.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah held Singh's plea as not maintainable saying that the review petition and the curative petition have both been dismissed in the case.
A 23-year-old paramedic student, who came to be known as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in south Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road.
The Union home ministry on Friday forwarded to President Ram Nath Kovind the mercy petition of one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape case, recommending its rejection, officials said. Mukesh Singh, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, had filed the mercy petition a few days ago.
Singh had moved the mercy plea after the Supreme Court dismissed his curative petition against his conviction and death sentence. The apex court had also rejected the curative petition of another death row convict Akshay Kumar, 31.
Just a few kilometres from Tihar Jail where their sons were executed at 5.30 am, the women sit outside their homes in south Delhi's slum colony Ravidas Camp, waiting for the bodies of the two young men who were among the six who so brutally raped a 23-year-old woman on December 16, 2012 that she died of her injuries a fortnight later.
The four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case spent a restless and sleepless night. They were asked to take a bath but none of them did. All of them were served their last meal but one of them refused breakfast before being taken to the gallows, an official said.
Advocate M L Sharma said one of his clients, Mukesh Singh, was implicated in the case.
Death row convicts are asked about their last wish before hanging.
A Delhi court on Monday completed recording of the evidence of prosecution witnesses in the December 16 gangrape case with the investigating officer, saying she had arrested accused after the incident was reported.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought response from the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case on the Centre's appeal challenging the Delhi high court verdict which dismissed its plea against stay on their execution.
Nirbhaya gang rape and murder convict Akshay Kumar has filed a second mercy petition before President Ram Nath Kovind just three days before his scheduled hanging on March 20.
Mehta told Justice Suresh Kait that convict Pawan Gupta's move of not filing a curative or a mercy petition is a deliberate, calculated inaction.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana said the death sentence cannot be executed pending disposal of mercy petition of convict Pawan Kumar Gupta.
However, hours after the high court order was pronounced, Akshay's mercy plea was rejected by the President on Wednesday evening. The mercy pleas of Mukesh and Vinay have already been rejected. Pawan is yet to seek that relief.
The HC has issued a notice to Tihar jail authorities and the Nirbhaya convicts and sought their response on a plea moved by the Centre challenging the stay on their execution.
The UN calls on all nations to stop the use of capital punishment or put a moratorium on it.
The plea claimed that Singh was arrested from Rajasthan and brought to Delhi on December 17, 2012, and was not present in the city on December 16, when the crime took place.
The petition has been filed by convict Mukesh Kumar whose mercy plea was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17.
In its order, the high court was critical of the delay caused by the authorities in seeking issuance of death warrants for the convicts as also of the "delay tactics" adopted by the convicts.
Vinay attempted to hurt himself by banging his head against a wall in his cell, on February 16. He had received minor injuries.
In the circular, which was made public on Friday, it is mentioned that in a matter wherein the high court has confirmed/ upheld death penalty and this court has granted leave (admission of case), the criminal appeals will be listed for hearing not later than six months before the the three-judges bench from the date of grant of leave, irrespective of the fact that appeal is ready or not.
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear on Friday the Centre's appeal challenging the Delhi high court's verdict dismissing its plea against stay on the execution of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.
Rediff.com takes a look at some cases from the recent past where the courts awarded the capital punishment for horrific crimes that fall under the rarest of rare category.
The fate of four convicts in the December 16 gang rape and murder case will be known on Friday with a Delhi court set to pronounce the much-awaited order on whether their offence falls in the "rarest of rare" category warranting death sentence.
Less than nine months after the December 16 brutal gang rape incident, a fast track Delhi court on Tuesday held all the five accused, including a man who died during the trial, guilty of rape and cold blooded murder of a "defenceless" 23-year-old girl that can fetch them death.
Three police officials, who arrested one of the accused in the December 16 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl in a moving bus here, testified as prosecution witness before the fast-track court on Monday.
Here is the chronology of events in the Nirbhaya case.
Three accused in the December 16 gang rape case were on identified in a special court in New Delhi by the lady police officer, the prime witness, who had arrested them hours after the heinous crime.
The mobile phone said to be belonging to the December 16 gang-rape victim was recovered from the house of one of the accused in the case, a prosecution witness on Monday told a fast track court.
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