Hangman performs dummy execution of Nirbhaya rape convicts

Hangman
Pawan on Wednesday performed a dummy execution of the four death row convicts
in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case at Tihar Jail, two days ahead of their
scheduled hanging on March 20, officials said.

Pawan had
arrived from Meerut on Tuesday and conducted the dummy execution to test the
ropes, which will be used to hang the four convicts, they said.

On March 5,
a trial court here issued fresh warrants for March 20 at 5:30 am, as the date
for the execution of Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and
Akshay Kumar Singh (31).

The death
warrant was deferred thrice earlier.

A
23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as ‘Nirbhaya’
(fearless), was gang raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi
on December 16, 2012. She died after a fortnight.

Six people,
including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused.

Ram Singh,
the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail days after the
trial began in the case while the juvenile was released in 2015 after spending
three years in a correctional home.