Nirbhaya Convict Pawan Files Mercy Plea Before President

New Delhi: Within hours of rejection of his curative petition in the Supreme Court, one of the four death row convicts, Pawan Gupta on Monday, filed a mercy petition before the President of India. Earlier in the day, a five- judge bench led by Justice NV Ramana of the Supreme Court had rejected Pawan's curative plea seeking commutation of death sentence to life.

The hanging of the four death row convicts, Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Kumar Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Singh (31) is scheduled for March 3 at 6 am, in compliance with the death warrants issued by the Patiala House Court on February 17.

With the rejection of the curative petition, Pawan has now exhausted the last judicial option and has therefore, chosen to file a mercy petition before the President of India.

The other death row convicts in the Nirbhaya case, Mukesh Singh, Akshay Singh and Vinay Sharma have exhausted all the legal remedies available to them. Two death row convicts, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Singh, moved the Patiala House Court on Saturday seeking stay on the execution of death warrants.

Akshay had cited his fresh mercy petition before the President of India, while Pawan submitted that he had moved a curative plea before the apex Court which has now been rejected.

The trial court has sought a response from Tihar Jail authorities by Monday.