New Delhi, January 29: One of the Nirbhaya gangrape case convicts, Vinay Kumar Sharma, on Wednesday (January 29) filed a mercy petition before President Ram Nath Kovind for the commutation of his death sentence to a life sentence.
Vinay filed his mercy plea hours after the Supreme Court dismissed the petition of another convict Mukesh Kumar Singh challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by President Kovind saying there is no merit in the contention. The apex court stated that the alleged torture can’t be ground and all documents were placed before the President and he had taken them into consideration.
Notably, Mukesh approached the SC on January 27 (Monday) seeking urgent hearing on his plea against the dismissal of his mercy petition. A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice R Banumathi along with Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Ashok Bhushan heard the arguments on Tuesday. The four convicts, Mukesh Kumar Singh, Pawan Kumar Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma, and Akshay Kumar Singh, are set to be hanged at 6 AM on February 1 in the gang-rape case.
During the hearing, advocate Anjana Prakash, who appeared on behalf of Mukesh, alleged that her client was physically and sexually assaulted in Tihar jail and put under solitary confinement.
Prakash also informed the SC that the “Presidential pardon is a Constitutional duty of great responsibility, which must be exercised keeping in mind greater good of the people”, adding “Solitary confinement and procedural lapses are the grounds for considering this case … Undue delay in hearing the petition and the due and prescribed procedure was not followed in this case.”
