Nirbhaya convict Akshay Thakur files fresh mercy plea, Delhi court asks Tihar jail to file report

New Delhi: Nirbhaya gangrape-murder case convict, Akshay Thakur filed a fresh curative petition on Saturday (February 29,2020) seeking a stay on the execution of the death warrants, scheduled for March 3. The fresh petition claims that the earlier petition was incomplete. Lawyer of the convict AP Singh said that Akshay filed the plea on February 25 which reached the President Secretariat on Saturday.

Meanwhile, one out of the four convicts Pawan Gupta filed a curative petition on Friday (February 28, 2020) in the Supreme Court seeking direction to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment. Pawan Kumar is the only convict who is yet to receive the President's decision, which is the final legal remedy available for the death sentence. 

On February 5, Akshay Thakur's mercy petition was rejected by President Ram Nath Kovind. So far, mercy petitions of Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh have also been rejected by the President. 

After the convict's filed petition, Additional Session Judge Dharmender Rana issued notice to Tihar Jail authorities directing the officials to file a report in their response by March 2, 2020.

The court had on February 17 had ordered that all the four convicts - Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31) - be hanged on March 3. 

A 23-year-old medical student was gang-raped and murdered on a moving bus on December 16, 2012. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later 

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, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Kumar Singh were sentenced to death.