A Tihar Jail official on Thursday said that one of the death row convicts of Nirbhaya gangrape-murder case, had tried to hurt himself by banging his head against a wall in his cell earlier this week.
Vinay Sharma received minor injuries and he was taken to hospital for treatment after he banged his head on the wall on February 16.
Sources said that they believe Vinay tried to injure himself in order to delay his hanging. Vinay and three other convicts are scheduled to be hanged on March 3 at 6 AM.
According to a Supreme Court directive issued in 2014, a death row convict has to be physically and mentally fit to be executed.
The Supreme Court had last week dismissed the plea of Vinay Sharma challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by the President. He had moved the apex court alleging that the rejection of the mercy plea was done in a "mala fide" manner.
He has now exhausted all legal remedies available to him.
The Patiala House Court had on Monday issued fresh death warrants for all four individuals convicted in the case.
A 23-year-old psychotherapy student, dubbed by media as 'Nirbhaya', was gang-raped and brutalised on a moving bus on December 16, 2012, before being dumped on the road. She was airlifted to Singapore where she died on December 29, 2012.
Six people, including a juvenile, were arrested for the crime. The juvenile was released after serving a three-year term at a juvenile home, one convict allegedly committed suicide in jail while four others - Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) were sentenced to death.
The Delhi High Court had earlier said that all the four convicts in the Nirbhaya case have to be hanged together and not separately.
The convicts have used legal loopholes to delay the hanging. The first date of execution, January 22, was postponed to February 1 which was further delayed as convicts filed reviews and mercy pleas.
On Wednesday, the mother of Nirbhaya appeared on Zee News to address the nation and appeal for support in her fight against justice.
In a special segment of 'DNA' with Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary, she said if her daughter fails to get justice then no other victim of heinous crimes like rape and murder will be able to get justice.
"If Nirbhaya fails to get justice, no other victim will be able to get justice. All of us should come together and make sure that Nirbhaya gets justice," she said.
