New Delhi , Mar 18 : With less than 48 hours to go for the execution of the capital punishment of the four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case, the Tihar Jail authorities have started the last round preparations.
On Tuesday, Pawan Jallad, the hangman from Meerut arrived in Tihar and on Wednesday dummy hanging of the four convicts will be carried out on the gallows prepared inside the jail. Jallad who comes from a family of hangmen will be paid Rs 20,000 each for the hanging.
This is the fourth time Jallad has come to Delhi since the beginning of this year.The executions were differed the past three times due to the last-minute court orders. This time too, the four convicts are trying to delay the hangings, despite them running out of legal remedies.
On Tuesday, the wife of Akshay Kumar Singh, one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya case, has filed for a divorce in a local court in Bihar’s Aurangabad. In the plea, the wife of convict Akshay Kumar Singh has said she doesn’t want to live the life of a widow as her husband is set to be hanged on March 20. The court has posted the matter for March 19. Punita, Akshaya’s wife, has said, “My husband is innocent. I want to be legally divorced before he is hanged.”
Punita’s lawyer Mukesh Kumar Singh, speaking to media in Aurangabad said, “My client (Akshay Kumar Singh’s wife Punita Singh) has a right to seek a divorce from her husband. That is why I have filed a plea in the family court. She has the right to seek divorce under Section 13(2)(II) of the Hindu Marriage Act which says a woman can seek divorce if the husband has, since the solemnization of the marriage, been guilty of rape, sodomy or bestiality.”
However, many feel that this is yet another attempt to delay the hangings, scheduled for Friday. On Tuesday, one of the convicts Akshay Kumar filed a second mercy petition before President Ram Nath Kovind. Officials at Tihar Jail, where the hanging is scheduled to take place, said Kumar filed the petition addressed to the President on Tuesday evening.
“This plea will also be forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs through the Delhi government,” they said. However, the petition will not delay the execution, according to a senior jail official.
The four men Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Kumar Singh who have been convicted for the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedical student in Delhi had been trying everything to stop the hangings. Just a few days ago they even had approached the ICJ to delay the executions. (NEWS)
