President rejects mercy plea of Nirbhaya rape convict Vinay Sharma

New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday (February 1) rejected a mercy petition filed by Vinay Sharma, one of four convicts on death row in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape-murder case, Home Ministry officials said. This is the second mercy plea to be rejected by President Kovind in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case. 

Initially, the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape-murder case were to be hanged at the Tihar Jail on February 1 at 6:00 am. The Tihar Jail authorities had also brought Pawan Jallad, a third-generation hangman from Meerut to carry out the execution. 

On January 31, the jail authorities also performed a dummy execution of the four men ahead of the actual hanging. However, later in the day, a Delhi court stayed the execution of all the four Nirbhaya rape convicts until further orders.

Live TV

Advocate AP Singh, appearing on behalf of the convicts, told the court on Friday that some legal remedies are still available for the convicts adding that Mukesh has been sincerely pursuing all legal remedies without delay. On the other hand, public prosecutor Irfan Ahmad argued that the application moved by Vinay and Akshay is non-maintainable as per the Delhi Prison Rules but said that the execution of Vinay can be postponed.

Tihar jail authorities, who were also present in the court during the hearing, filed a status report in the matter and informed the court that the convicts can be hanged separately adding that convict Mukesh Singh has exhausted all the legal remedies available to him.

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