Nirbhaya case: Judge who issued death warrant against 4 convicts transferred
New Delhi: In yet another development related to the Nirbhaya case, the sessions judge who recently issued death warrants against the four convicts in the 2012 gangrape-and-murder case has been transferred.
According to a letter sent by the registrar general of Delhi high court to the district judge of Patiala House courts, additional sessions judge Satish Kumar Arora has been transferred to the Supreme Court.
Ahead of their execution date set by the same judge, all the four death row convicts—Vinay Shrama (26), Akshay Kumar Singh (31), Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), and Pawan Gupta (25)—who are lodged in separate cells in Tihar jail, are yet to inform the authorities about when they want to meet their families for the last time or whom they want to will their property.
The execution of the convicts is scheduled for 6.00 am on February 1. The dummy execution of the four death row convicts was performed in the prison last week. The jail officials recorded the weights of the convicts and then prepared the dummies accordingly with sacks filled with debris and stones. The execution will take place in Jail No. 3.
The Uttar Pradesh (UP) prison authority has already confirmed to their counterparts in Tihar jail that Pawan Jallad from Meerut will be sent to hang the four convicts.
The Tihar authorities had written to the UP prison officials, seeking the services of two hangmen from the state for the execution.
All the four convicts are likely to be hanged simultaneously. The jail authorities are also holding conversations with them on a daily basis to ensure that they were in a good mental state.
A senior jail official said that after the death warrants were issued, the convicts were asked when they would like to meet their respective families for the last time and if so, who all did they wish to meet, and whether they wanted to make any will. “But none of them have responded yet,” he added.
The family of all the four convicts are allowed to meet them twice a week but the last date of meeting has not been fixed because they have still not responded.
On Wednesday, in a plea filed by the Centre before the Supreme Court, the Union home ministry said heinous crime convicts are taking the “judicial process for a ride.”
They demanded fixing a seven-day deadline for execution of the condemned prisoners after issuance of black warrant amid the delay in the hanging of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya case.
