Nirbhaya Case: After Mercy Plea Rejection, Tihar Jail Authorities Seek Fresh Date of Execution For Convicts 

The development comes as President Kovind earlier in the day rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case.

New Delhi: Soon after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Gupta, the Tihar Jail authorities on Wednesday said they will move Patiala House Court for fixing a fresh date of execution of the four Nirbhaya case convicts.

2012 Delhi gangrape case: State (prosecution) moves trial court with a plea seeking issuance of fresh death warrant of execution against convicts, after the dismissal of mercy petition of convict Pawan Gupta. pic.twitter.com/LOctvuL0zz

— ANI (@ANI) March 4, 2020

However, the road is now clear for the convicts to be hanged as President Kovind has already rejected the mercy petitions of the other three convicts in the case.

The development comes as President Kovind earlier in the day rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case. In the case, Gupta was the last convict to file a mercy petition.

The rejection of mercy petition from President Kovind comes after a Delhi court, on Monday, stayed for the third time the death sentence of four convicts in the case, saying that they cannot be executed as a mercy petition is pending before the President in the case.

Representing for the Nirbhaya convicts, advocate AP Singh had filed the mercy petition before President of India on behalf of Pawan Gupta on Monday.

Prior to this, President Kovind had on February 5 rejected the mercy petition of convict Akshay Singh Thakur. So far, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh’s mercy pleas have been rejected by President Kovind.

However, advocate AP Singh has filed a ‘complete’ mercy plea on behalf of convict Akshay Singh Thakur claiming that the previous one, which was rejected by the President, did not have complete facts.

On the other hand, Pawan Gupta’s curative petition in the Supreme Court seeking commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment has also been rejected by the apex court.

A 23-year-old paramedical student was brutally raped in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in Delhi. The woman died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.