Hours after Supreme Court rejects curative petition, 2012 Delhi gangrape convict Mukesh Singh files mercy plea before President Kovind

After the Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the curative petitions filed by two convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape and murder case, one of the convicts, Mukesh Singh, has filed a mercy plea before President Ram Nath Kovind. [caption id=“attachment_1107085” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The four convicts in the Delhi gangrape case. PTI[/caption] Mukesh filed the mercy plea with President Ram Nath Kovind, Tihar Prison authorities told PTI. The three others are yet to file any petition before the President. Mukesh, one of the four convicts scheduled to be hanged on 22 January, on Tuesday also approached the Delhi High Court for setting aside the death warrant issued by a trial court. The matter is listed for hearing on Wednesday before a bench of Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal. The petition, filed through advocate Vrinda Grover, seeks setting aside of the 7 January order issuing warrant of his execution. The four convicts — Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25) — are to be hanged on 22 January at 7 am in Tihar jail as a Delhi court had issued their death warrants on January 7. Earlier in the day, a five-judge bench of the apex court had refused to stay the Delhi court's order and also rejected the curative petitions filed by Mukesh and Vinay on 9 January, holding that there was no merit to the petitions. A 23-year-old medical student Jyoti Singh was gruesomely beaten, gang-raped and tortured in a moving bus by Ram Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, Mukesh and a juvenile on 16 December, 2012 when she was travelling with a friend in New Delhi. She succumbed to her injuries 13 days later at a Singapore hospital. Six people were arrested in the case, including a minor. During the trial, the driver of the bus was found dead in his cell. The Juvenile Justice Board found the minor guilty of gangrape and murder and awards three years term at a probation home. In July 2018, the Supreme Court dismissed review petitions filed by three of the accused – Mukesh, Vinay and Pawan. The fourth convict, Akshay’s review petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court in December, 2019. With inputs from PTI