Nirbhaya convict seeks urgent hearing by SC

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 27

Mukesh Kumar Singh, one of the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, today requested the Supreme Court to urgently take up his petition challenging President Ram Nath Kovind’s decision to reject his mercy plea.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde asked his lawyer to approach the top court’s Registry for urgent listing. “If somebody is going to be hanged, then nothing can be more urgent than this… Execution case will be given top priority,” CJI Bobde told the advocate representing Mukesh, who is scheduled to be hanged on February 1.

A week after rejection of his mercy petition, Mukesh had on Saturday moved the SC challenging the President’s decision. Mukesh had filed the mercy petition after the SC rejected his curative petition against its verdict confirming the death sentence awarded to him. He is scheduled to be hanged along with three other convicts on February 1 at 6 am in Tihar Jail, Delhi.

The top court had also rejected the curative petition of another death row convict Akshay Kumar. Other two convicts, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Kumar Sharma, were yet to file curative petitions before the top court.

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