Nirbhaya's grandfather welcomes SC decision to dismiss death row convicts' curative petitions

Nirbhaya's grandfather on Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to dismiss the curative petitions filed by two of the four death row convicts in the 2012 gang rape and murder case.

He said the entire village was very happy with the top court's decision.

"We welcome the Supreme Court's decision dismissing the curative petitions of two of the four death row convicts," Lalji Singh told newspersons at his native Medawar Kala village along the border of Bihar.

"It will be like Diwali for us when all the four convicts are hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail," he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, a five-judge bench headed by Justice N V Ramana rejected the curative petitions filed by convicts Vinay Sharma (26) and Mukesh Kumar (32).

A Delhi court had on January 7 issued death warrants against the four convicts and said they would be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail.

Two other death-row convicts, Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25), had not filed curative petitions.

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 being thrown out on the road. She died on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.