Nirbhaya case: Delhi court dismisses NGO plea to persuade death row convicts to donate organs

A Delhi court Friday dismissed an NGO's plea for a meeting with four death row convicts in the sensational 2012 Nirbhaya Gang rape and murder case to persuade them to donate their organs. Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora dismissed the application "being devoid of any merit".

The court had ordered on January 7 that the four convicts -- Mukesh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) -- be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail. "Having given my thoughtful consideration and having perused the material on record, I am of the view that the applicant has no locus to meet the convicts and jail authorities cannot be directed to facilitate the meeting," the judge said, dismissing the petition.

The court also noted, "As per record available two of the four have moved petitions before SC." The petition, filed by an NGO, RACO, said, "The applicant is requesting for a meeting with the convicts along with a group comprising of experts from various fields including psychiatrist, spiritual leader, lawyer and the undersigned, to lead expert consultations with the hope that we would acknowledge remorse to these convicts regarding the heinous crime committed by them."

"We intend to motivate them to donate their organs for social welfare," said advocate Shivam Sharma, appearing for the petitioner. The review petitions by the convicts against the 2017 verdict of the Supreme Court have been dismissed by the top court for the heinous crime committed by them seven years ago when the nation had come out on streets demanding exemplary punishment to them.

The 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in south Delhi by six persons before being thrown out on the road. She died on December 29, 2012, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

One of the six accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail here. A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board and was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.

The top court in its 2017 verdict had upheld the capital punishment awarded to them by the Delhi High Court and the trial court.

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