New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday rejected the mercy plea of Vinay Sharma, one of the four men facing the gallows in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.
The President had earlier rejected another convict Mukesh Singh's mercy plea.
A Delhi court on Friday had postponed the execution of death warrants of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case till further orders.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana passed the order on plea by the convicts seeking a stay on their execution on Saturday, February 1.
A total of six people - Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta, Ram Singh and a juvenile - were named accused in the 2012 gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic student here.
The victim, who is referred to as 'Nirbhaya' (fearless), was gangraped and brutally assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She succumbed to her injuries days later, on December 29, at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore where she was taken for better medical treatment.
The savagery of the crime shook the nation and led to country-wide protests over the issue of women's safety and seeking speedy trial of the accused.
The trial of the five adult men began in a special fast-track court in March, 2013.
Prime accused Ram Singh committed suicide by hanging himself in Tihar jail days after the trial began.
Besides them, the juvenile, who was said to be the most brutal of the attackers, was put in a correctional home for three years. He was released in 2015 and sent to an undisclosed location amid concerns over a threat to his life. The juvenile, when released, was 20-years-old.
Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay and Pawan were convicted and sentenced to death in September, 2013.
