Nirbhaya case convict Akshay files second mercy petition

Nirbhaya gang rape and murder convict Akshay Singh has filed a second mercy petition before President Ram Nath Kovind just three days before his scheduled hanging on March 20.

Officials at Tihar Jail, where the hanging is scheduled to take place, said Kumar filed the petition addressed to the President on Tuesday evening.

"This plea will also be forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs through the Delhi government," they said.

However, the petition will not delay the execution, according to a senior jail official.

Earlier, the first petition of Kumar was quashed by the President.

On March 5 this year, a trial court had issued fresh warrants with March 20, 5.30 am, as the date for the execution of the four convicts in the case -- Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31).

This is the fourth death warrant against the convicts as the earlier three warrants were deferred pending the exhaustion of legal remedies by the convicts.

After the fresh death warrant was issued, the Tihar Jail authorities wrote to their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh requesting for the service of hangman Pawan Jallad, a senior jail official said.

Pawan Jallad, a hangman from Meerut, reached the Tihar Jail on Tuesday.

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

Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused.

Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail days after the trial began in the case.