Nirbhaya case: Convicts move to Patiala House Court, lawyer alleges Tihar Jail delaying mercy plea

The lawyer of the Nirbhaya rape accused has yet again moved the Patiala House Court alleging that the Tihar Jail authorities are causing delay in filing mercy petitions.

The plea moved by the Advocate AP Singh will be heard on Saturday at the Patiala House Court.

Advocate AP Singh has alleged that Tihar Jail authorities are yet to release documents that are needed to file curative and mercy petitions for Pawan and Akshay, two of the four accused in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape case.

The apex court recently dismissed the curative petition for the other two convicts --Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Mukesh Singh (32).

The Nirbhaya rape and murder case convicts are scheduled to be executed on February 1.

Meanwhile, the Centre on Wednesday had moved the Supreme Court for fixing a seven-day deadline for executing death penalty of condemned prisoners.

The plea of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) assumes significance in view of the death row convicts in the sensational Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case of 2012 filing review, curative and mercy petitions, which has delayed their hanging.

The MHA's plea sought a direction from the top court in fixing the deadline for filing of curative pleas after the rejection of review petitions.

It also sought a direction that "if the convict of death sentence wants to file mercy petition, it would be mandatory for a convict of death sentence to do so only within a period of seven days from the date of receipt of death warrant issued by the competent court".