Nirbhaya gangrape-murder convict Mukesh Singh files mercy plea before President Kovind

One of Nirbhaya gangrape-murder case convicts, Mukesh Singh, on Tuesday (January 14) moved mercy plea before President Ram Nath Kovind after the rejection of his curative petition against the capital punishment by the Supreme Court.

Notably, President Kovind has the power to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment. Earlier on Tuesday, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice NV Ramana and comprising justices Arun Mishra, RF Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan dismissed the curative petitions of Mukesh and Vinay as they found no merit in their pleas.

Tihar jail officials confirmed that Mukesh has filed the mercy plea. All four convicts in Nirbhaya gangrape-murder case – Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Kumar (32), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25) – will be hanged at 7 AM in Jail No. 3 inside Delhi’s Tihar Jail on January 22. On January 7, Delhi's Patiala House Court had issued death warrant for all the four convicts. The court, however, gave them two weeks' time to file both the curative and mercy petition. 

Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi had welcomed the order, saying her daughter has finally got justice. "My daughter has got justice. Execution of the 4 convicts will empower the women of the country. This decision will strengthen the trust of people in the judicial system," she said.

The four convicts were awarded capital punishment for raping a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in the national capital on the night of December 16, 2012.

The victim, who was later named as Nirbhaya, died at a hospital in Singapore where she was airlifted for medical treatment.