Nirbhaya case convict Vinay writes to President, seeks submission of his side `verbally`

Nirbhaya rape and murder case convict Vinay Sharma requested the President to spare time so that his lawyer AP Singh should submit his side before him verbally.

New Delhi: In his mercy plea filed before President Ram Nath Kovind, Nirbhaya rape and murder case convict Vinay Sharma has written that he did not want to live but after meeting his parents he gave up thinking about death as they said, "they are alive because of me". 

In his plea, the convict has written to the President that he wants to convey his feelings to him through his lawyer AP Singh, adding that he wants to tell the President how much mental harassment he has suffered while remaining in jail. 

He requested the President to spare time so that his lawyer AP Singh should submit his side before him verbally.

On Wednesday, a three-judge Supreme Court bench dismissed the plea of Mukesh Kumar Singh challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by the President. With this decision by the top court, Mukesh has exhausted the last legal remedy available to him against the death sentence.

The top court, however, will today hear the curative petition of Akshay Thakur, one of the four convicts, seeking commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment.

The plea states that the top court should set aside the May 5, 2017 order, which upheld the death sentence of the convicts. 

Akshay's plea said that lack of criminal antecedents, erroneous reliance on deterrence, and the probability of reformation, socio-economic circumstances, non-consideration of constitution bench judgment, were not considered by the courts while awarding his client to death.

In December 2019, the apex court had dismissed Akshay`s review petition. 

Earlier this month, a Delhi court had issued the death warrant for Akshay, Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, and Vinay Kumar Sharma, and ordered their hanging on February 1.

For the last 15 days, accused are visiting courts to use their legal rights, but they have not got any favourable response from any court so far.

The case pertains to the gang-rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in Delhi.