MHA recommends gallows: Nirbhaya convict closer to hanging now

New Delhi, Dec 06: The killers of Nirbhaya are further closer to the gallows with the Ministry of Home Affairs rejecting the mercy plea of one of the convicts.

The Ministry for Home Affairs recommended to the President of India to reject the mercy plea of the convict in the Nirbhaya case.

Earlier, Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal had also recommended rejecting the mercy petition filed by one of the convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya murder case.

The development came a day after the Delhi Government recommended rejection of the mercy petition of Vinay Sharma, one of the convicts facing the gallows for the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic student.

Vinay Sharma had filed a mercy petition before President Ram Nath Kovind.

The Delhi Government and LG's recommendations will be sent to the president who will take the final call on the matter.

On Sunday, the AAP government "strongly recommended" rejecting Vinay Sharma's mercy petition.

"This is the most heinous crime of extreme brutality committed by the applicant (Vinay Sharma). This is the case where exemplary punishment should be given to deter others from committing such atrocious crimes," a source quoted Jain as saying in the file noting on Sunday.

The Delhi home minister had also said, "There is no merit in mercy petition, strongly recommended for rejection."

Sharma is in Tihar jail since his arrest in the case and had filed a mercy plea, while Mukesh, another convict, had refused, according to officials.

The paramedic student was raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, inside a running bus in south Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road.

She died on December 29, 2012, at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, where she was airlifted from Delhi for treatment.

One of the accused Ram Singh had hanged himself in the jail and another accused, a juvenile, was convicted of rape and murder and given the maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment in a reform facility.

The fourth death row convict, Akshay Kumar Singh (33), had not filed a review plea in the Supreme Court.