Soon after the President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition of Vinay Kumar Sharma, one of the convicts in Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, another convict, Akshay Thakur,
on Saturday, filed a mercy plea before President. Meanwhile, the Centre on Saturday approached the Delhi High Court challenging a trial court's order staying the execution of the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.
The Delhi High Court on Saturday sought response of the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case on the Centre's plea challenging the stay on their execution. The court will hear the petition on Sunday. Justice Suresh Kait issued notice to the four convicts, Mukesh Kumar, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Singh.The court has also issued notice to DG (Prisons) and Tihar Jail authorities, seeking their stand on the Central Government's plea.
The lawyer of the DG (Prisons) told the court that its orders would be complied with. During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that the convicts in the Nirbhaya case have taken process of law on a "joyride" and are acting in tandem to delay their execution.
He further told the court that the Nirbhaya gangrape case will go down in history of India where convicts of the heinous crime are trying the patience of the country.
On Saturday, Akshay Thakur, one of the convicts of the Nirbhaya case, filed a mercy plea before President. Earlier in the day, the President rejected the mercy plea of Sharma. On Friday, for the second time the execution of the death warrants were deferred. The first order for execution of death sentence, issued on January 7 for January 22, was stayed on January 17.
Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Thakur (31) were scheduled to be hanged on February 1 at 6 am. Tihar jail administration has completed all the formalities for their execution. The hangman Pawan Jallad requisitioned for the hanging has even carried out a dry run of the hanging and has been housed in the jail premises.
The second warrant, issued on January 17, for February 1 was stayed on Friday. Advocate A P Singh, the counsel for the three convicts — Pawan, Vinay and Akshay — had urged the court to adjourn the matter "sine die" saying their legal remedies were yet to be exhausted.
With Advocate A P Singh, the counsel for Pawan, Vinay and Akshay contending that their legal remedies were yet to be exhausted, the hanging date remains uncertain.
As of now, Mukesh has exhausted all his legal remedies including the clemency plea which was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17 and the appeal against the rejection was thrown out by the Supreme Court on January 29.
The curative petitions of Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay have been also rejected by the apex court. On Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed Pawan's plea seeking review of the decision by which his application claiming to be a juvenile at the time of the commission of offence was rejected.