Nirbhaya Rape Case: SC to hear today plea of death row convict against dismissal of mercy petition

The Supreme
Court will on Tuesday hear a writ petition filed by Mukesh Kumar Singh, one of
the four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang rape case.

Singh moved
the top court on Monday and sought urgent hearing on his plea against dismissal
of his mercy petition by the President.

The
32-year-old’s mercy plea was dismissed by President Ram Nath Kovind on January
17.

A bench
headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said, “If somebody is going to be hanged
then nothing can be more urgent than this” and asked Kumar’s counsel to
approach the mentioning officer as the hanging is scheduled on February 1.

The bench
also comprised justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant.

The warrant
for execution of death sentence for Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Singh
and Pawan Gupta in the case has been fixed on February 1 at 6 am. Their
last-minute petitions have been widely seen as attempts to stall the hanging.

The
23-year-old Delhi medical student was gang-raped and tortured with an iron rod
on a moving bus before being thrown off the vehicle on December 16, 2012.

Six men were
arrested. One man was found hanging in his jail cell and the sixth, the
youngest, just short of 18 at the time, was released after three years in a
reform home.