The Additional Sessions Court has issued a fresh death warrant against the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case. As per the warrant, the four convicts – Akshay Kumar, Pawan Gupta, Mukesh Singh and Vinay Sharma – will be hanged on 3 March at 6 am IST.
The order was passed by Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana in applications by Tihar Jail Superintendent and the victim's parents, seeking the issuance of a new date for the execution of the death warrant against the four convicts.
Calling the application by Mukesh's mother seeking new counsel for her son as "unfortunate", the court had appointed a new counsel.
At the same hearing, Akshay moved a fresh mercy petition. His counsel argued, due to poverty and ignorance, he could not inform of complete facts in the earlier mercy petition.
The six men were arrested for a crime that took place on 16 December 2012 when a girl, who became known as Nirbhaya (the fearless) was returning home with a male friend.
She was gang-raped in a moving bus and later succumbed to her injuries in a hospital. While the prime accused Ram Singh allegedly committed suicide during the trial, another perpetrator was a juvenile and was released after he served three years in a reform facility. The incident had triggered large-scale protests across the country.