New Delhi, February 29: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday the plea of Pawan Singh Gupta, one of the convicts in Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, seeking commutation of his death penalty. The petition would be heard by a five-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice N V Ramana. Another convict, Akshay Singh, moved a fresh mercy petition claiming that all facts were not listed in her erstwhile plea which got rejected by the President.

The exercise of legal and constitutional remedies, by the convicts of the 2012 Delhi gangrape-murder case, comes days before their execution. As per the death warrant issued by a Delhi court, the four of them are scheduled to be hanged at 6 am on March 3. Nirbhaya Case: Convict Vinay Sharma Claims to be Suffering From 'Schizophrenia', Seeks Treatment Ahead of March 3 Execution.

Update by ANI 

Akshay Files Mercy Plea

The manner in which the top court addresses the plea of convict Pawan would determine whether the culprits of the horrific crime would get executed on the scheduled date. Earlier, the lawyer representing the convicts, AP Singh, had reportedly told the prosecution that they would "never be hanged". While speaking to reporters later, the counsel had said that the execution cannot be expedited while disregarding the provisions of the law.

Apart from Pawan and Akshay, the two other convicts - Mukesh Singh and Vinay Sharma - have exercise all their legal remedies. The four of them were convicted of gangraping and murdering a 23-year-old medical student inside a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012. Another major convict, Ram Singh, had committed suicide inside the Tihar Jail. A minor, who was also convicted of the crime, was released after spending three years in a juvenile justice home.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 29, 2020 04:22 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).