With one of the convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case filing a mercy plea, the Delhi government on Wednesday told the High Court that execution of the hanging order at 7 am on January 22 was unlikely.
It comes a day after the Supreme Court dismissed the curative petition of two death row convicts, paving the way for their hanging along with two other convicts. Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Mukesh Singh (32) had filed a curative petition in SC after a Delhi court on January 7 issued a death warrant against them and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25) and announced January 22 as the date of execution.
The Delhi government told Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal that the petition filed by convict Mukesh, challenging his death warrant, was premature and it will have to wait for a decision on it before executing the death warrant.
The hearing, which is going on since morning, will continue post-lunch, the PTI reported.
