[Breaking] Nirbhaya: Fresh Death Warrant issued, Four convicts to be hanged on March 3 at 6 am

The Additional Sessions Court today issued fresh death warrant against the four convicts in Nirbhaya gang rape case.As per the warrant, the four convicts ie. Akshay, Pawan, Mukesh and Vinay will be hanged on March 3 at 6 am..The order was passed by Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana in applications by Tihar Jail Superintendent and Nirbhaya's parents, seeking issuance of a new date for the execution of the death warrant against the four convicts..The Court today took note of the fact that convict Pawan Gupta had opted not to avail any of the legal remedies available to him despite being informed about the same by his counsel. ."Article 21 merely guarantees an opportunity to the condemned convicts to exercise their legal rights however whether to utilize or not to utilize the opportunity is a matter of choice of the condemned convict."Judge Dharmender Rana said..The Court thus opined that convict Pawan was either satisfied with the verdict or was simply interested in delaying the proceedings..The Court thus issued death warrants for March 3 and remarked, ."Convict Pawan cannot be permitted to defeat the ends of justice by simply opting to remain indolent..Now deferring it (execution of death warrant) any further would be sacrilegious to the rights of the victim for expeditious justice."Judge Dharmender Rana.The order was passed pursuant to Prosecutor Rajeev Mohan's contention that there was no bar on the Court to issue a date for execution as no legal proceedings were pending before any fora..The Court today also discharged Advocate Vrinda Grover as the counsel for convict Mukesh after Mukesh expressed his wish to engage another counsel..The Court has now appointed legal aid counsel, Advocate Ravi Qazi as Mukesh's counsel. Grover was appointed as convict Mukesh's counsel by the Court in December last year. .Advocate Qazi, who also represents convict Pawan, informed the Court that Pawan wanted to move curative and mercy petitions..Advocate Qazi told that Court as per Pawan, he could not avail any legal remedy during the the 7 days' period given by the Delhi High Court on February 5 because his then lawyer, Advocate AP Singh did not come and meet him..Criminally sinful to execute condemned convicts when law permits them to live: Delhi Court refuses to fix execution date for Nirbhaya convicts."I had communicated about the High Court order through the Tihar Authorities and discharged my professional duty", Advocate AP Singh said in response..Advocate AP Singh also stated that convict Akshay would prefer a fresh mercy petition before the President as in the earlier mercy petition, complete facts could not be placed on record due to poverty and ignorance..After being informed the convict Vinay had also undertaken a hunger strike between 11.02.2020 and 12.02.2020, the Court today directed the Jail Authorities to take appropriate care of the convicts as per law..The Court also opined that the filing of a fresh mercy petition could not be a ground to defer the execution of death warrants in the case. .Read the order: