Nirbhaya case: Convict Akshay Thakur files mercy petition before President

New Delhi, Feb 01: Akshay Thakur, one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya case, filed mercy petition on Saturday before President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday, his lawyer said.

"Akshay Thakur filed a mercy plea before President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday," Director General (Prison) Sandeep Goel said.

Earlier in the day, the President rejected the mercy plea of another accused, Vinay Sharma.

The convicts were due to be hanged on Saturday, but on Friday, a Delhi court deferred the hanging till further orders. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana passed the order on a plea filed by the convicts seeking a stay on their execution on Saturday.

A 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people before she was thrown out on the road.

One of the six accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail in 2013.

A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board and was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.