"No Remedy Left": Top Court Rejects Nirbhaya Convict's Fresh Request

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the request by one of convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape to file a new curative petition against his death sentence, refusing to once again put on hold their execution due this week.

"Circumstances say there is no remedy left. You (Mukesh Singh) have availed mercy plea. It was rejected. Warrants issued. Curative petition has been dismissed. What's the remedy left?" the Supreme Court said.

Mukesh Singh had sought the cancellation of all orders passed by courts and the rejection of his mercy petition by President Ram Nath Kovind since the day his curative petition was dismissed by the top court on the grounds that their lawyer Vrinda Grover had misled him.

The petion, filed through advocate M L Sharma, sought a CBI probe into a "criminal conspiracy" and "fraud" by the central government, the Delhi government and advocate Vrinda Grover, who is the amicus curiae in the case.

The four convicts, who were served death penalty for the gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi - dubbed Nirbhaya - more than seven years ago, are expected to be hanged on Friday, at 5:30 am.

The death warrant, the fourth one, was issued a day after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition of Pawan Gupta, the last of the four death row convicts. With the President's rejection, the convicts had exhausted all options for relief from the death sentence.

Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana fixed March 20 as the new date of execution after it was told by the Delhi government that the convicts have exhausted all their legal remedies. The lawyer for the four death row convicts also told the court that there was no legal impediment for court in proceeding to fix the date of execution.

Akshay Thakur, 31, Pawan Gupta, 25, Vinay Sharma, 26, and Mukesh Singh, 32, had filed multiple staggered petitions challenging their death sentence.

The four convicts, along with two others - one of them a minor - had gang-raped the young woman and tortured her with an iron rod on the night of December 16, 2012. She died on December 29 at a hospital in Singapore.

One of the attackers, just short of 18 when the crime was committed, was released after spending three years at a reform home. The main accused, Ram Singh, was found hanging in jail.

The brutality of the attack had outraged the nation bringing thousands on the streets in protest, which led to key changes in the law and security system.