Delhi court seeks Tihar jail's response on Nirbhaya convict's plea seeking stay on execution

A Delhi court on Thursday issued a notice to the Tihar jail authorities seeking its response of a petition filed by the convicts in Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case seeking a stay on the execution, which is scheduled for February 1.

Session Judge AK Jain asked Tihar Jail authorities to submit a status report before 10 am tomorrow. The hearing in the matter will be heard tomorrow.

"This is clearly a mockery of justice. Convicts' lawyers are taking too much time to use their legal remedies. Convict Vinay filed his mercy plea yesterday," public prosecutor Irfan Ahmad told the court.

In his petition filed in the Patiala House Court, advocate AP Singh who is the lawyer of convicts Akshay Thakur and Vinay Sharma, said that according to the Delhi Prison Rules, none of those convicted can be hanged until all of them have exhausted all legal options.

The four convicts in the matter -- Akshay Thakur, Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, and Vinay Kumar Sharma -- are scheduled to be hanged on February 1.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court earlier today dismissed convict Akshay Thakur's curative petition, which sought commutation of the convict's death sentence to life imprisonment.

Recently, Vinay Sharma has filed a mercy petition in the matter.

Earlier, Mukesh Kumar too had filed a mercy petition, which was rejected by the President. He later challenged the rejection of his mercy petition in the Supreme Court but to no avail.

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.