Nirbhaya case: Court to hear on Dec 18 plea seeking issuance of death warrants against convicts

A Delhi court will hear on Wednesday a plea seeking issuance of death warrants against four people convicted in the Nirbhaya gang rape-and-murder case.

Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora on Friday deferred the matter till December 18, noting that the review petition of one of the convicts was pending before the Supreme Court for Tuesday.

"At least, I have to wait till the time appeal for review is pending," the judge said.

"My view is that once the review is pending before before the SC, let's wait for the outcome," the judge said. "Since his (Akshay Kumar) review petition is pending before SC for December 17, I would adjourn it for December 18."

Urging the court to issue death warrants, the prosecution said: "The court can issue death warrant. Nothing prevents court from issuing death warrants."

The apex court had on July 9 last year dismissed the review pleas filed by the three other convicts -- Mukesh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma -- in the case saying, no grounds had been made out by them for review of the 2017 verdict.

A 23-year-old paramedic student, who came to be known as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, inside a running bus in south Delhi by six people and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road. She succumbed to injuries on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

One of the accused in the case, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide at Tihar Jail in Delhi.

A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board. He was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.