Delhi gangrape convict Pawan Gupta’s mercy petition rejected by President Kovind

President
Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Gupta, one of the four
convicts in the Delhi gangrape case. The Delhi government had earlier
recommended rejecting Gupta’s mercy petition.

He was the
only one out of the four convicts to not have exhausted all the legal remedies.

On Monday, a
court in Delhi again postponed the execution of the four convicts in the case,
which was slated for Tuesday, till further orders, after their lawyer AP Singh
pointed out that Gupta has filed a mercy petition with the President.

The four
convicts – Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Kumar –
were scheduled to be hanged at 6 am on March 3.

Pawan Gupta
had moved a fresh application before the Delhi court seeking a stay on the
hanging, as his mercy plea is pending before the President after the court
dismissed their application seeking stay on hanging earlier on Monday.

He filed the
mercy petition after his curative petition was rejected by Supreme Court on
Monday morning.

The case
pertains to the gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old girl, christened Nirbhaya
bythe media, in the Capital in December 2012. Six people, including the four
convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused.

Ram Singh,
the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail days after the
trial began in the case. The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three
years in a correctional home.