Nirbhaya case: President Kovind rejects convict Pawan Gupta's mercy plea

President Ram Nath Kovind on March 4 rejected the mercy plea of Pawan Gupta, who is one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case.

The Union Home Ministry had, on March 2, received Pawan's mercy petition.

A Delhi court had, on March 2, deferred till further order the hanging of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.

Hanging of the four convicts was scheduled for March 3 at 6 am.

Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana had said the death sentence cannot be executed pending disposal of mercy petition of convict Pawan.

The court passed the order on Pawan's plea seeking to stay the execution as he has filed a mercy petition before the President on March 2.

A 23-year-old woman paramedic student, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya— the fearless— was gang-raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012.

She succumbed to injuries on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore where she was taken for better medical treatment.

A total of six people— Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Kumar Gupta, Ram Singh and a juvenile— were convicted in the gang rape and murder of the paramedic student.

The President has already rejected the mercy petitions of Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay. While Ram Singh had committed suicide in jail, the juvenile was released from a remand home after completion of his term.