Nirbhaya's mother breaks down over delay in execution  

Not happy with yet another adjournment given by the court, Nirbhaya's mother on Wednesday broke down inside the courtroom and pleaded the judge to issue fresh date for the execution of four convicts.

"I have been requesting the court for one and a half year to ask the convicts to avail their legal remedies. It has been more than seven years. What about my rights?" Asha Devi pleaded to the court.

The reaction came after the Patiala House Court Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana adjourned the hearing, on application seeking issuance of fresh execution date after advocate A.P. Singh apprised the court that he is no longer representing convict Pawan Gupta in the case, for Thursday.

The court gave Pawan the "liberty to choose" his counsel from the list of empanelled advocates of the Delhi State Legal Service Authority. The matter will now be heard on at 3 p.m. on February 13.

Victim's father also requested the court not to grant legal aid to the convict. "It will be unjust to the give him a lawyer," he said.

The case pertains to the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl in the national capital in December 2012.

Out of the four convicts, Pawan is the only one who has yet not availed of the remedy of either curative or mercy petitions, which will be the last judicial and constitutional resort for him.-IANS