Nirbhaya: No execution for rapists on Jan 22, Court directs jail authorities to file proper report

New Delhi, Jan 16: The execution of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case will not take place on January 22 and has been further delayed.

The Delhi court directed Tihar jail authorities to file proper report by tomorrow about status of scheduled execution of convicts.

Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora passed the directions after jail authorities informed that they have written to the Delhi government on the issue of scheduled execution on January 22 in view of pending remedies of the accused.

The four convicts -- Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Kumar (32), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25) -- were to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail. A Delhi court had issued their death warrants on January 7.

In their last ditch effort to escape the gallows, Public Prosecutor said the court as per rules, January 22 execution cannot take place. Execution can only take place after mercy plea is dismissed and 14 days should be given to convicts for meeting family.

Advocate Seema Kushwaha for Nirbhaya 's parents argues that the mercy petition has only been filed but is not 'pending' before the President. Hence, the execution cannot be stayed.

Earlier on Thursday, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government rejected the mercy plea of Mukesh, one of the convicts.

Curative petition: Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Kumar Singh have already exhausted this remedy and two others -- Pawan Gupta and Akshay Singh -- are yet to move the Supreme Court with this plea.

Appeal against warrants for execution of death sentence: Mukesh was the only person to challenge in the Delhi High Court which declined to entertain his petition on the ground that he should have either moved the sessions court or the apex court. Late in the evening, he moved the sessions court.

The other three convicts have not yet challenged the death warrant for hanging them on January 22.

Mercy Plea: Only Mukesh has moved a plea seeking mercy before the President.

The convicts were sentenced to death penalty for raping a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus in the national capital on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012. The victim, who was later given the name Nirbhaya, had succumbed to injuries at a hospital in Singapore where she had been airlifted for medical treatment.