Nirbhaya death row convict challenges rejection of mercy petition in SC

Mukesh Kumar Singh, one of the death row convicts in the 2012-gangrape and murder case, on Saturday moved Supreme Court challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by the President.

"I have filed a petition before the Court challenging the rejection of mercy petition by the President," said his lawyer Vrinda Grover, speaking to ANI.

"I have moved the Apex Court for judicial review against the order of rejection of mercy petition by the President of India," said Grover.

Grover has sought commutation of Mukesh's death sentence to life imprisonment, as the President had rejected his mercy petition.

Supreme Court's five-judge bench, headed by Justice NV Ramana, had earlier, dismissed the curative petitions of Mukesh and another death row convict, Vinay Kumar Sharma.

After the dismissal of the curative petition by the SC, Mukesh had filed a mercy petition before the President of India, who also had rejected his mercy plea.

Mercy petition is the last constitutional recourse that a death row convict can exhaust. The 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally gang-raped in a moving bus on December 16, 2012, by six men (including a juvenile), in Delhi.

One of the accused, out of five adult accused, Ram Singh, had committed suicide in the Tihar jail during the trial of the case.

The other three death row convicts, against whom the death warrants had already been issued are - Pawan Kumar Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma, and Akshay Kumar Singh.