Nirbhaya case: Convict Akshay Kumar files fresh mercy plea, says previous one didn't have all facts

New Delhi, Feb 29: A convict in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, Akshay Kumar has moved a fresh mercy petition to the President Ram Nath Kovind, claiming that the petition filed earlier did not have all the facts.

The fresh petition for commutation of death sentence has come three days before the new date for hanging set at March 3 by a Delhi court.

The killer of Nirbhaya, Akshay Kumar had moved his original mercy petition on February 1 and President Kovind had rejected it on February 5.

However, on Friday, another convict Pawan Kumar Gupta filed a curative petition before the Supreme Court, in his plea he sought his death sentence to be commuted to a life imprisonment sentence.

Earlier on February 5, the Delhi high court had dismissed the Centre's plea against the trial court's order staying the execution of death sentence of the four convicts.

It also faulted the authorities concerned for not taking steps for issuance of death warrant after the rejection of appeals of the accused by the apex court in 2017.

The trial court on February 17 issued fresh date for execution of death warrants for March 3 at 6 am for the four convicts -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31) -- in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.

The mercy petitions of three convicts -- Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay -- have already been dismissed by the President. The apex court had earlier dismissed separate pleas filed by Mukesh and Vinay challenging the rejection of their mercy petitions by the President.

On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who later came to be known as ''Nirbhaya'' (fearless), was gang raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died after a fortnight.