Vinay Kumar Sharma, one of the four death-row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case, filed a mercy plea before President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday, PTI reported, quoting his lawyer AP Singh.
Sharma’s curative petition before the Supreme Court had been rejected on January 14, along with that of co-convict Mukesh Singh’s. Kovind has already rejected Mukesh Singh’s mercy plea since then. In Sharma’s curative plea, his lawyer had highlighted that the convict was 19 years old when he committed the crime, adding that young age and socio-economic background should have been considered by the court
A trial court has issued death warrants for the execution of all the four convicts – the other two being Pawan Gupta and Akshay Kumar Singh – at 6 am on February 1. The four were earlier supposed to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am, but it was postponed due to the delay caused by Mukesh Singh’s mercy plea.
Earlier in the day, the top court dismissed a petition by Mukesh Singh challenging the rejection of his mercy plea by Kovind. Another convict, Akshay Kumar Singh, filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, a month after the top court rejected his plea seeking a review of his death sentence.
The four convicts, along with two others, had raped and brutally assaulted a paramedical student on a bus on the night of December 16, 2012, an incident that had sparked countrywide protests. One accused died in prison, and the sixth was a juvenile.
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