Nirbhaya case: Tihar jail seeks new hanging date from Delhi court after President rejects Pawan`s mercy plea

Hours after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy plea of Pawan Gupta, one of the four convicts in Nirbhaya gangrape case, Tihar jail authorities on Wednesday (March 4) moved Patiala House Court seeking a fresh date for the hanging of the four convicts on the death row in this case.

The court has issued notices to the convicts and will hear the matter at 2 pm on Thursday. President Kovind has already rejected the mercy petition of the three other convicts -- Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Kumar Singh. Notably, the Patiala House Court had issued the death warrants for the four convicts three times in the recent past.

With the rejection of Pawan's mercy petition, the appeals, reconsideration petitions, curative petitions and mercy petitions of all the four convicts in the case have been exhausted, i.e., all the legal rights of the four convicts have been exercised.

The court had on February 17 had issued a fresh death warrant for the four convicts - Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31) - be hanged on March 3. 

The case pertains to the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old girl in the national capital in December 2012. Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused.