One of the death row convicts of the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, Vinay Sharma attempted to kill himself in his cell early this week and has reportedly sustained injuries.
Sharma’s lawyer Mukesh Kumar Singh told the court that his client was suffering from “acute mental illness”. He further said that this is exactly why the death sentence cannot be carried out.
Singh had earlier told the court that Sharma was on a hunger strike in jail. The court had then directed the Tihar Jail Superintendent to take care of Vinay as per the law.
The court on Monday issued death warrant against the four convicts–Akshay Kumar (31), Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (26) and Vinay Sharma (26) for the third time.
The convicts will now be hanged till death on March 3 at 6 am.
Earlier, they were slated to be executed on January 22 which was postponed to February 1, however, a Delhi court on January 31, indefinitely suspended the execution of the convicts, noting that all the convicts had not exhausted their legal remedies.
A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as ”Nirbhaya”, was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.
Six people, including the four convicts, Ram Singh and a juvenile — were named as accused.
The trial of the five adult men began in a special fast-track court in March 2013.
Ram Singh, the prime accused, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in Tihar jail days after the trial began. The juvenile, who was said to be the most brutal of the attackers, was put in a correctional home for three years.
The juvenile was released in 2015 and sent to an undisclosed location amid concerns over a threat to his life. He, when released, was 20 years old.