Convict on death row in 2012 gang-rape case files mercy petition before President

NEW DELHI: Vinay Sharma, one of the convicts facing the gallows in the 2012 gangrape and murder case of a 23-year-old paramedic student, has filed a mercy petition before President Ram Nath Kovind, officials said.

Sharma is in Tihar Jail since his arrest.

"He (Sharma) filed a mercy petition while Mukesh, the other accused, has refused and said that he will not do so," a senior official of Delhi Prisons said.

In a notice issued to the four convicts on October 29, the jail superintendent informed them that they have only seven days after the receipt of the notice to file the mercy petition.

Sources said if the mercy petition is not filed, prison authorities can approach the court, which will issue a death warrant.

A 23-year-old paramedic student was raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in south Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road.

She died on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

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

Three of the convicts are housed in Tihar jail while one is them is lodged in the Mandoli jail.

On July 9 last year, the apex court dismissed the pleas of three convicts -- Mukesh (31), Pawan Gupta (24) and Sharma (25) -- seeking review of it 2017 verdict which upheld the capital punishment given to them by the Delhi High Court and the trial court in the case.

The fourth death row convict, Akshay Kumar Singh (33), had not filed a review plea in the apex court.