Govt moves court seeking fresh date for execution of Nirbhaya case convicts

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government on Wednesday moved a city court seeking fresh date for the execution of four Nirbhaya case convicts.

President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four men facing the gallows in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, a Home Ministry official said earlier in the day.

The trial court had on February 17 issued fresh date for execution of death warrants for March 3 at 6 am for the four convicts -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) -- in the case.

The matter is likely to be taken up for hearing shortly by Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana.

The President has already rejected the mercy petitions of Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay.

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