Nirbhaya Gangrape Case: Convicts Could Be Executed Soon After All Legal Remedies, Except Mercy Plea, Exhausted

The Nirbhaya Gangrape convicts have been intimated that they all exhausted all legal remedies and are now only left with the provision of filing a mercy plea against the death sentence before the President.

The notice was issued to the four remaining convicts on October 29. The jail superintendent informed them that they have only seven days after receiving the notice to file the mercy petition.

BCCL

"It is hereby informed that in case if you have not yet filed the mercy petition and if you wish to file the mercy petition in your case against the capital sentence before the Hon''ble President of India, you can file it within seven days of the receipt of this notice through prison authorities, failing which it will be presumed that you are not willing to file mercy petition in your case and the jail administration will initiate further necessary legal proceedings as per law," read the notice.

If the convicts do not file the mercy petition, the trial court will be informed and it will decide on the future course of action.

The prison authorities may approach the court, which will issue a death warrant.

In the wee hours of December 16, a 23-year-old student was raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in south Delhi by six persons. She was severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road. She died on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

BCCL

One of the accused, Ram Singh had hanged himself in the jail and another, a juvenile, was convicted of rape and murder and was given the maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment in a reform facility.

The Supreme Court, last year, dismissed the pleas of three convicts -- Mukesh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma. The fourth death row convict, Akshay Kumar Singh had not filed a review plea in the Supreme Court.