Nirbhaya convict Akshay files mercy petition before President

Akshay Thakur, the third of the four death row convicts at Tihar jail, has filed a mercy petition to President Ram Nath Kovind, according to news agency ANI.

News of Akshay Thakur’s request for a presidential pardon emerged minutes after Home Ministry officials confirmed that President Kovind had rejected the mercy plea filed by Vinay Sharma, another convict in the Delhi gang rape case.

Four men - Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Kumar Gupta (25), Akshay Thakur (31) and Vinay Sharma (26) - were sentenced to death by a fast-track court within a year of the 2012 rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic on her way home after watching a movie.

Mukesh Singh and Vinay Sharma had separately filed mercy petitions earlier. Mukesh Singh’s request for pardon was rejected last month; Vinay Sharma’s request earlier this morning. Both requests were rejected within a record four days.

Akshay Thakur is the third convict to have approached Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The mercy petitions have insulated the death row convicts from execution so far and led a Delhi court to twice freeze the death warrant that had been issued, first to carry out the death sentence on January 22 and next, on February 1.

On Friday, Delhi judge Dharmendra Rana put off the hanging of the four convicts because Vinay Sharma’s mercy petition was still pending. Under a 2014 Supreme Court verdict, the judge will have to give the convicts 14 days after the rejection of the mercy petitions to carry out the death sentence.