Ram Nath Kovind, the President of India, on the evening of the 5th of February, rejected the mercy petition of Akshay Singh, one of the convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.
The Home Ministry of India, on the 5th of February, presented the mercy plea of Akshay Singh before the President, which was filed a few days back.
Akshay Singh filed the mercy plea after Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh, 2 other convicts in the case, did so.
According to the legal procedure, all the convicts in the Nirbhaya case had a last chance to escape the death sentence, which was the mercy plea.
While out of the four convicts, three of them used their legal rights and filed mercy pleas, Pawan Gupta, the 4th convict, is yet to file his mercy plea.
Meanwhile, after the Delhi High Court (HC) gave its judgement of hanging all the four convicts together and not separately, the Delhi Government moved the Supreme Court (SC,) challenging the judgement.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ruling Government in Delhi, on the 5th of February, filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP.) The SLP is a petition which can be filed only when any kind of gross injustice has been done. The SLP also gives the party challenging the decision or verdict of any court in the Country a chance to be heard in the Apex Court.
The SC is yet to review the petition filed by the Delhi Government.
The hanging of all the four convicts is being delayed due to their legal rights. This is not the first time the death sentence issued against the convicts was postponed. Previously, the four convicts were scheduled to be hanged on the 29th of January. However, due to Mukesh Singh’s mercy plea, the date was shifted to the 1st of February. Once again, due to Akshay Singh’s mercy plea, the hanging was postponed until further orders.
The date when the 4 convicts in the Nirbhaya case would be hanged is yet to be announced.
Stay tuned for further updates regarding the case.
