Despite having been trailed over their legal battles, the Nirbhaya case convicts have been moving back to back mercy petitions to the President with the view of reprieving from the death sentence, which has been halted for the second time by the Delhi court.

The reports say that Akshay Kumar, one of the four convicts has, on  Saturday, approached the President with his mercy petition and to seek amnesty from the President as the last resort of getting acquitted from the execution. His petition has come on the same day when the four convicts have earlier been scheduled for execution. The reports have stated that Akshay Kumar is one of the convicts who had banked with the remedy of filing mercy petition.

The prison authorities have said that he has tabled his mercy plea on Saturday and his mercy plea was followed by another convict Vinay Sharma.  Vinay Sharma has moved his mercy petition to the President on Thursday and his counsel had tabled the same in the Delhi court asking the court to award fourteen days for the convicts as one of them had filed a mercy plea and after the hearing, the Delhi court had, on Friday, halted the execution until further orders.

However, on Saturday, President Ram Nath Kovind had rejected the mercy petition of Vinay Sharma making him to left with no legal further legal remedies. The reports have cited that the Tihar jail authorities will approach the Delhi court to fix the new date of execution. The authorities stated that they will move to Delhi court to seek the fresh warrant as Vinay Sharma's mercy plea was rejected.

The Delhi court bench headed by Justice Dharmender Rana had, on Friday, passed the order of staying the execution of the convicts after their counsel had moved the petitions to halt the death sentence by citing that Vinay Sharma, one of the convicts, had filed a mercy petition to the President and claimed that the convict must be given with 14 days till execution.

Speaking to the reporters after the directive, Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi stated that "The lawyer of the convicts, AP Singh has challenged me saying that the convicts will never be executed. I will continue my fight. The government will have to execute the convicts." Earlier, Nirbhaya's parents demanded that the four convicts must be hanged as scheduled instead of consenting them to use the law to delay the execution.

Also read:  Justice for Nirbhaya: Delhi court halts execution until further orders!