Nirbhaya case: Vinay Sharma received maximum punishment for violation of jail rules, says Tihar official

Out of the four convicts who were hanged to death in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, 26-year-old Vinay Sharma received the maximum punishment for violating jail rules, officials said.

The four -- Vinay, Akshay Singh (31), Mukesh Singh (32) and Pawan Gupta (25) -- were hanged to death on Friday.

Vinay, who took painting lessons in Tihar Jail, received 11 'punishments' for not following rules, Pawan eight, Mukesh three and Akshay one punishment during their seven years in jail, they said.

The punishment ranges from curtailing visiting rights of family for a small fight to changing the barracks for creating serious trouble, a jail official explained.

In 2015, Vinay took admission in a one-year bachelor's degree programme which he could not complete. The year after, Mukesh, Pawan and Akshay took admission in Class 10 in 2016, and appeared for the exam but could not pass it, according to a jail official.

Vinay has earned Rs 39,000, Akshay Rs 69,000 and Pawan Rs 29,000 while Mukesh did not involve himself in any work in the jail, he said.

The daily wages earned by the convicts for basic and everyday jobs done in the jail were handed over to their family.

Akshay did tailoring and grinding 'atta chakki', Pawan worked in the jail canteen and Vinay worked as a 'sahayak' (helper) during the seven years they spent in the jail, he said.

The four men were executed for savagely raping a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as Nirbhaya, on December 16 in Delhi in 2012. The woman died in a Singapore hospital a fortnight later.