Nirbhaya case: Delhi court issues fresh death warrant for four convicts; hanging on March 20

The lawyer for the four death row convicts told the court that there was no legal impediment for court in proceeding to fix the date of execution.

A 23-year-old woman paramedic student, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya— the fearless— was gang-raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012.

She succumbed to injuries on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore where she was taken for better medical treatment.

A total of six people— Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Kumar Gupta, Ram Singh and a juvenile— were convicted in the gang rape and murder of the paramedic student.

The President has already rejected the mercy petitions of Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay. While Ram Singh had committed suicide in jail, the juvenile was released from a remand home after completion of his term.

This is the fourth death warrant issued by the court. The execution had been scheduled earlier for March 3 at 6 am. Before that, the convicts were to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar Jail, a Delhi court had announced on January 7 while issuing their death warrants.

However, on January 17, the court had issued a fresh death warrant for the execution of the four Nirbhaya convicts, with the convicts now scheduled to be hanged at 6 am on February 1.

The court had, however, on January 31 stayed the hanging of the four death-row convicts. The trial court had postponed the execution of the death warrant till further notice.