Nirbhaya case: Death row convict files mercy plea before President

Death row convict Akshay Singh Thakur on February 1 filed a mercy plea before President Ram Nath Kovind in the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case.

Earlier today, President Kovind had rejected the mercy plea of another convict – Vinay Sharma – in the Nirbhaya case.

With this, the mercy pleas of two convicts stand rejected, one is pending before the President and the fourth is yet to file one.

Thakur and three other convicts were to be hanged on February 1 but a city court indefinitely postponed their hanging a day before.

The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was gang raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.

Six people – Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta, Ram Singh and a juvenile – were named as accused.

The trial of the five adult men began in a special fast-track court in March 2013.

The prime accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in Tihar jail days after the trial began. The juvenile, who was said to be the most brutal of the attackers, was put in a correctional home for three years.

He was released in 2015 and sent to an undisclosed location amid concerns over a threat to his life. The juvenile, when released, was 20 years old.

Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay and Pawan were convicted and sentenced to death in September 2013.

With inputs from PTI