They were scheduled to be hanged on February 1, but a Delhi court stayed the execution of the convicts until further orders.
President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the mercy petition of Akshay Kumar Singh, one of the four convicts facing death penalty in the December 16 gangrape-murder case, the Home Ministry officials confirmed Wednesday.
This is the third mercy plea that Kovind has rejected in the case. Singh had filed the mercy petition before the President a few days back, news agency PTI reported. The mercy pleas of two other convicts — Vinay Kumar Sharma and Mukesh Singh — already stand rejected by the President. They were scheduled to be hanged on February 1, but a Delhi court stayed the execution of the convicts until further orders.
Earlier in the day, the Delhi High Court rejected the Centre’s plea against the stay of execution the four convicts and asked the convicts to exhaust all their legal remedies available in one week, failing which the authorities can take further steps.
Meanwhile, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad assured the Lok Sabha that the convicts will be hanged soon. “We are very strict…justice will be given to her. Convicts will be hanged soon,” Prasad said in Parliament.
The case dates back to December 16, 2012, when a 23-year-old woman was gangraped and assaulted inside a moving bus in South Delhi by six persons, before being thrown out on the road. She died on December 29, 2012 at a hospital in Singapore.