Delhi govt moves court seeking fresh date for execution of 4 Nirbhaya case convicts

President Ram Nath Kovind rejects mercy petition of one of the convict Pawan Kumar Gupta

Delhi gang rape convicts Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta (face covered), Vinay and Mukesh Singh (R) being taken to the High Court in New Delhi on September 24, 2013.

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 Sharma and Akshay Kumar Singh .

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 .