Nirbhaya Convicts Move Court, Accuse Tihar Officials of Delay in Handing Over Records for Curative Pleas

New Delhi: The lawyer for two of the convicts on death row in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case has approached a Delhi court accusing the Tihar Jail authorities of delay in handing over documents required to file curative petitions against the death penalty.

In his plea, advocate AP Singh, lawyer for three of the four death row convicts, has sought directions to Tihar authorities to supply him with relevant documents required to file curative petitions for Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Singh (25). The plea is likely to be taken up for hearing on Saturday.

Singh said that the convicts have repeatedly tried to their medical records from 2012 to 2015 and 2019-2020, records of cellular confinement, records of the amount earned in prison through labour, records of educational and reformative activities like Tihar Olympics and Painting, etc, but have not received them yet.

"Despite multiple requests, the documents pertaining to convict Vinay Sharma had not been provided and further similar documents should be directed to be provided for convicts Pawan Gupta and Akshay Thakur from the superintendents of the respective jails," the application said.

The apex court recently dismissed the curative petition for other two convicts -- Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Mukesh Singh (32).

The hanging of all four is to take place on February 1 at 6 am as per the court order.

A 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people before she was thrown out on the road.

All the six accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. One of the accused was a minor and appeared before a juvenile justice court, while another accused committed suicide in Tihar Jail.

Four of the convicts were sentenced to death by a trial court in September 2013, and the verdict was confirmed by the Delhi High Court in March 2014 and subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court in May 2017, which also dismissed their review petitions.