Nirbhaya case: Another convict files curative petition before Supreme Court

Mukesh Singh, a convict in the 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder case against whom death warrant has been issued along with three others, has filed a curative petition before the Supreme Court.

Earlier in the day, another convict in the Nirbhaya rape case, Vinay Kumar Sharma, filed a curative petition before the Supreme Court.

A Delhi Court had issued a death warrant against four convicts on January 7 and they are to be executed on January 22 at 7 am in the Tihar Jail premises.

Besides Vinay and Mukesh, Pawan and Akshay are facing the gallows. The court after issuing a black warrant in their name gave them two weeks' time to file both the curative and mercy petition.

A curative petition is the last judicial resort available for redressal of grievances. It is decided by the judges in-chamber.

The mercy petition, on the other hand, is filed before the President who has the power to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.

The case pertains to the gang-rape of a woman by six persons on a moving bus in the national capital on the night of December 16, 2012.

The victim, who was later given the name Nirbhaya, died at a hospital in Singapore where she had been airlifted for medical treatment.