Sunday, January 12, 2020

Nirbhaya convict allowed to meet mother

TNN | Jan 12, 2020, 04.10 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Jail authorities allowed the family members of Mukesh Singh, one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya case, to meet him as he had started behaving erratically ever since the death sentence was read out to the four men.

Sources said that in an emotional meeting, Singh broke down several times while talking to his mother. The family members, however, assured him about the curative petition and the option of a mercy petition after which he allegedly calmed down.

Jail officials, meanwhile, said that this was not the last meeting between Singh and his family. The convicts would be allowed to meet their family members twice a week, as per the norms. The families would be informed about their last meeting before the hanging well in advance, so that they can prepare for it. During this, they would be allowed to take the personal belongings of the convicts and record a will in the presence of a superintendent.

During the meeting, Singh was learnt to have spoken to his mother about the welfare of his brothers and parents. Jail sources said that the four Nirbhaya convicts on death row had stopped interacting with even the jail staff ever since a court issued the death warrants.

The four men were being kept in solitary cells.

Singh, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta had even shown violent traits and got into arguments with the jail employees on Wednesday, while they were being served food. They were kept on a simple diet of chapatis, daal and vegetable curry that they initially refused to eat. However, jail sources said that later they were calmed down by the counsellor and convinced to eat. The jail officials even shifted the three men to the ‘kasoori ward’, where they are left alone in a cell to introspect, before being convinced.

Vinay Sharma, on the other hand, had confined himself to his cell ever since the verdict. Jail sources said that all of them seem to be restless. Jail counsellors said that this behaviour was common among convicts on death row. The authorities would provide them religious books to read. Jail doctors advised the authorities to keep a check on the health — both mental and physical — of the four men since they had to maintain adequate body weight required for hanging a prisoner.

(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)

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