Sj Desk
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court deferred the hearing on the Union home ministry’s petition, seeking a direction to hang the four rapists separately in the shocking and disturbing 2012 Delhi gang-rape case to March 5.
The Centre took its petition to the top court after getting rejected by the Delhi High Court on February 5. The High Court had ruled that all four rapists in the Nirbhaya case should be executed together and cannot be hanged separately.
The HC explained that the Delhi prison rules do not clearly state whether when the mercy petition of one convict is pending, the execution of the other convicts can take place. From the trial court to the Supreme Court, all hold convicts by a common order and a common judgment.
Employing yet another cheap tactic to save a man capable of a heinous crime, lawyer of rapist Vinay Sharma, AP Singh had told the court last week that his client suffers from mental illness, schizophrenia and has failed to recognise his counsel and family.
However, a Delhi court dismissed the plea of Vinay that sought treatment at the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) for ‘mental illness' on Saturday.
On 17 February, the court issued a third fresh death warrant against Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Thakur and ordered their execution on 6 am on March 3.
The world is hopeful that the death warrant will follow through and India will wake up to a world free of four undeserving humans who destroyed a young woman's life just because they could.
Our hope, however, has been tested, because our system has freed a juvenile, aged 17, who inserted a rod in the 23-year-old woman, causing massive damage to her organs.
