Another Nirbhaya convict files mercy plea with President

Vinay Sharma, one of the four death-row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya Delhi gang-rape case, has filed a mercy petition with President Ram Nath Kovind, his lawyer AP Singh said on Wednesday.

A Delhi court had issued the death warrant to Akshay Singh Thakur, Mukesh Kumar, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma, and ordered their hanging on February 1.

Earlier, Mukesh Kumar too had filed the mercy petition, which was rejected by the President. He later challenged the rejection of his mercy petition which was also dismissed by the Supreme Court.

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 adult accused, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail during the trial of the case.