Convicts moved to cells near hanging courtyard

New Delhi

New Delhi

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The four convicts of 2012 Delhi gang rape case were on Thursday shifted to four separate single cells inside jail number 3 of Tihar.

Jail officers said that while the hanging courtyard (phansi kotha) is also in jail number 3, the transfer of the four prisoners on Thursday does not mean that they will be hanged immediately. The prison authorities said they will proceed as per the court’s order after they file a status report on Friday related to the legal remedies of the four convicts.

The four convicts are lodged in single cells that have at least two CCTV cameras and are guarded by 2-3 jail guards round-the-clock. The prison’s spokesperson, Raj Kumar, confirmed that the four men had been transferred to jail 3.

The four men — Pawan Gupta, Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, and Mukesh Singh — are on death row after being convicted in the 2012 Delhi gang rape case. The men had gang-raped and assaulted a 23-year-old paramedical student inside a moving bus on December 16, 2012. The young woman died at a hospital in Singapore on December 29.

Until Thursday afternoon, Pawan, Akshay and Mukesh were lodged in jail number 2 while Vinay was in jail 3. Prison officers had already begun preparation for their execution on January 22 by ordering ropes (to be used for the execution) and seeking a hangman from Uttar Pradesh prisons department, according to a city court’s order. On Tuesday, one of the convicts, Mukesh Singh filed a mercy petition before President Ram Nath Kovind after which a city court said that the men cannot be hanged on January 22..