New Delhi, Jul 5 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered an interim stay on the execution of seven death row convicts in a gangrape and murder case involving a mentally challenged woman in Rohtak.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also agreed to hear the convicts' appeals challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court order which has upheld the trial court's decision to award capital punishment to them.

The High Court called the offence as "barbaric", "brutal" and "predatory."

On December 21, 2015, a local court in Haryana had convicted and awarded the capital punishment to the seven accused.

The case dates back to February 2015 when the convicts raped and killed a Nepali woman and later dumped her body in a field in Gaddi Kheri village in Rohtak in Haryana.

Stones and razor blades were recovered from her stomach during the post-mortem examination.

The eighth accused, who was on the run, later committed suicide in Delhi's Bawana area by consuming poison.