President Ram Nath Kovind rejects mercy plea of another Nirbhaya case convict Akshay Kumar Singh

Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) officials confirmed on Wednesday (February 5) that President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the mercy petition of Akshay Kumar Singh, one of the four convicts facing execution in Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.

Talking to PTI, an MHA official said that Singh had filed the mercy plea before President Kovind a few days ago. Notably, President Kovind had already rejected the clemency petition of two other Nirbhaya case convicts - Mukesh Singh and Vinay Kumar Sharma.

The development came hours after the Delhi High Court ruled that all the four convicts in Nirbhaya case should be hanged together, not separately. The Delhi HC also dismissed the Centre's plea against the order passed by the trial staying the execution of the convicts.

The court also directed the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape-murder case to avail all their legal remedies within the next seven days. Justice Suresh Kumar Kait observed in his order that no doubt the Nirbhaya case was a heinous crime and the convicts will take every remedy available.

On January 7, black warrants were issued by the trial court for the execution of all the four convicts in Tihar jail at 7 am on January 22. But the execution was not carried out due to pendency of mercy petition of one of them. On January 17, the trial court fixed 6 am on February 1 as the date and time of hanging but on January 31, the trial court again stayed the execution as the counsel for Pawan, Vinay and Akshay urged the court to adjourn the matter "sine die" saying they were yet to use all their legal remedies.

While the mercy pleas of Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay have been rejected by the President, Pawan is yet to file his plea before the President. The four convicts on death row are Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Thakur.