Nirbhaya convict Mukesh Singh files mercy plea with President Kovind

Mukesh Singh, one of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, has filed a mercy plea with President Ram Nath Kovind.

If the petition is not accepted, Mukesh Singh, along with the three other convicts, will be hanged at 7 am on January 22 at Delhi’s Tihar jail.

The others have not filed mercy petitions. Earlier, a curative petition filed by Mukesh Singh and Vinay Sharma was dismissed by a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Tueday (January 14).

Also read: Nirbhaya gang-rape: SC dismisses curative petitions of two death row convicts

The two convicts had sought a stay on their execution in the curative petition. They had also asked for an oral hearing, instead of the in-chamber hearing that was originally planned.

A Delhi court had issued death warrants on the four convicts and fixed the date of execution last week.

The four of them, along with two others, had gang-raped and mutilated a 23-year-old medical student seven years ago in a moving bus. The woman and her friend had been returning home after watching a movie on December 16, 2012.

Also read: Tihar Jail conducts dummy execution of four convicts in Nirbhaya gangrape case

The men gang-raped the woman and damaged her internal organs with an iron rod. They also beat up her friend and threw them out of the bus, naked and bleeding.

The woman succumbed to her injuries at a hospital in Singapore after 13 days.

The main accused, Ram Singh (the bus driver), was found hanging in his prison cell during the investigation in March 2013.

Another accused, Ram Singh, who was a few months short of 18 years when the crime took place, was released after staying for three years at a reform home. He wasn’t given a death sentence since he hadn’t been an adult when the incident occurred.