Nirbhaya Case: Convict Vinay Sharma Files Mercy Petition Before President Of India

Vinay Kumar Sharma, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, has filed mercy petition before the President of India. A Delhi court has issued black warrnat for the hanging of the four death-row convicts - Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Thakur - on February 1. However, they are unlikely to be hanged on that day as three of the four convicts are yet to exhaust their options to challenge the death sentence.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court dismissed the plea filed by Nirbhaya convict Mukesh Singh against the rejection of his mercy petition by President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday. While Vinay only has the mercy petition option left, the two other convicts Akshay and Pawan still have options of both mercy pleas and curative petitions. Akshay has already filed his curative plea before the Supreme Court on Wednesday and the top court is scheduled to hear his petition on Thursday.

A convict facing death sentence gets 14 days to meet family, put his affairs in order and for judicial review after the rejection of mercy plea by the President. Vinay, Mukesh, Pawan and Akshay have been sentenced to death for brutally raping and killing a medical student in Delhi in 2012. Another convict, a minor, was sent to a correctional centre and has been released after he serving his sentence. The sixth accused hanged himself to death during the trial. 

Even as a fast-track court had convicted the five within 10 months of the incidents, the appeals in the high court and Supreme Court have been dragging the executions. Tihar jail authorities have prepared the gallows for a February 1 execution, but the date is likely to be pushed further as the law allows convicts at least 14 days after the last of their legal is exhausted.