Nirbhaya case: President Ram Nath Kovind rejects mercy petition of Akshay Thakur

New Delhi, Feb 05: President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the mercy petition of Akshay Thakur, one of the convicts in 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.

Akshay Thakur had filed the mercy petition before the president a few days ago. The president has rejected Singh's mercy plea, an official said. Kovind has already rejected the clemency petition of two other accused in the case Mukesh Singh and Vinay Kumar Sharma.

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court had said all the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case have to be executed together, not separately, and dismissed the Centre's plea against the trial court's order staying the execution of their death sentence.

The High court passed this order after the Centre appealed against the Patiala house court's order of 31 January that had deferred the executions of the four convicts till further orders.

The convicts were due to be hanged on February 01, 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.