Nirbhaya rape convict Akshay Thakur files mercy petition before President

New Delhi: Akshay Thakur, a death row convict in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, on Saturday filed a mercy petition before the President of India. Thakur has become the third convict in the case to file a mercy petition before the President.

So far, President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the mercy petitions of convicts Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh in the matter.

Meanwhile, a Delhi court on Friday stayed till further orders the execution, which was earlier scheduled to take place on February 1, of the four convicts in the case.

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A Delhi court had earlier issued a death warrant for convicts -- Akshay Thakur, Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, and Vinay Sharma -- for their execution on February 1.

The case pertains to the gang-rape and brutalising of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in Delhi. 

The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later. One of the five adults accused, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail during the trial of the case.