On Thursday the Delhi LG had sent the mercy petition of Mukesh Singh to the Home Ministry a day after the Delhi government suggested its rejection
New Delhi: On Friday the Union Home Ministry forwarded the mercy petition of one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case to President Ram Nath Kovind, who has rejected its mercy petition, officials said.
A few days back Mukesh Singh, one of the convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, had filed the mercy petition.
“The Home Ministry has forwarded the mercy petition of Mukesh Singh to the President. The ministry has repeated the recommendation of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi for its rejection,” the official said.
On Thursday the Delhi LG had sent the mercy petition of Mukesh Singh to the Home Ministry a day after the Delhi government suggested its rejection.
Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh, and Pawan Gupta the four convicts were to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar Jail. After seven years a medical student was gang-raped on a moving bus, tortured and killed in December 2012. Delhi high court had issued its death warrants on January 7.
However, the Delhi government had informed the high court during a hearing that the execution of the convicts will not take place on January 22 as a mercy plea has been filed by Mukesh Singh.
The BJP on Thursday blamed the AAP government’s “negligence” for the “delay” in the hanging of Nirbhaya case convicts. The party said it’s being more than two-and-a-half years for the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation to give notice to convicts after the top Court rejected their appeal against the death sentence in 2017.
Union minister Prakash Javadekar told media that had the AAP government given notices to all convicts within a week of the top Court order, they would have been hanged by now and the country would have got justice.
Meanwhile, the AAP hit back at the BJP for holding it responsible for the delay and said law and order come under the Central government and the saffron party is lying to mislead the people.
AAP leader Sanjay Singh said it is an “insensitive and uninformative lie” as law and order is completely under the Central government.
“Whatever delay and negligence are taking place, the BJP is responsible and that is why instead of misguiding people, the union minister should apologize for ignoring such a sensitive matter,” said Singh.
If the petition is rejected, the convicts will be given a mandatory 14-day stay before the execution is carried out.
Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi said I welcome the President’s decision. “Mukesh Singh has no other option but they should be hanged on January 22 and only then it will be a fair judgment,” she said.
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