Delhi court reserves order on Nirbhaya convict's plea seeking stay on execution

A Delhi court on Monday reserved its order on a petition filed by Pawan Gupta, one of the four men facing the gallows in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, seeking a stay on the execution as his mercy petition is pending before the President.

Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana reserved the order after hearing arguments from all the sides in the matter.

The four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case -- Vinay Sharma, Akshay Singh Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh -- are scheduled to be hanged at 6 am on March 3.

The Union Home Ministry has received the mercy petition of Gupta, officials said on Monday.

The ministry will forward the petition to President Ram Nath Kovind for his consideration and decision.

A 23-year-old woman, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was gang-raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012. She succumbed to injuries days later, on December 29, at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore where she was taken for better medical treatment.

A total of six people -- Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta, Ram Singh and a juvenile -- were convicted in the gang rape and murder of the paramedic student here.

The President has already rejected the mercy petitions of Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay. While Ram Singh had committed suicide in jail, the juvenile was released from custody after completion of his term.