Delhi govt rejects mercy plea by gang rape convict

Convict Vinay Sharma’s petition will now be sent to the L-G

NEWDELHI: The Delhi government on Sunday ‘strongly recommended’ that the mercy petition of Delhi 2012 gang rape convict Vinay Sharma, be rejected. The government made the recommendation in reply to Sharma’s mercy plea. Last month, Sharma had sought mercy from President Ram Nath Kovind to spare him from the gallows.

State home Minister, Satyendar Jain, also in charge of the prisons, made the recommendation on Sunday and sent the file to lieutenant governor Anil Baijal. Baijal will give his recommendation on the file before sending it to President Kovind.

The President of India has the power to commute the death sentence awarded to a convict.

Vinay Sharma, one of the convicts of the Delhi gang rape case that shook the country and triggered protests seven years ago, had filed a mercy petition last month. On October 27 this year, the prison management had written to him and three other convicts – Pawan Gupta, Akshay Thakur, and Mukesh Singh -reminding them that the four were on death row.

The jail officers told them that they had exhausted their legal options and that the prison department would start the process for their hanging if the four did not file a mercy plea. Of the four convicts, Sharma is the only one to file a mercy plea.

In August 2016, he also attempted suicide by trying to hang himself from an iron grille in his prison cell. He was spotted by jail officers and stopped before he took his life. He had also taken a dose of anti-depressants before attempting to hang (From left) and Vinay Sharma. While one other convict hanged himself in jail, another, who was a teenager at the time, served 3 years in juvenile home. himself.

In response to Sharma’s mercy plea, home minister Jain wrote, “This is the most heinous crime of extreme brutality committed by the appellant. This is the case where exemplary punishment should be given to deter others from committing such atrocious crimes. There is no

This is the most heinous crime of extreme brutality committed ... exemplary punishment should be given to deter others from committing such atrocious crimes. There is no merit in mercy petition, strongly recommended for rejection.

SATYENDRA JAIN, Delhi home minister

merit in mercy petition, strongly recommended for rejection.”

The four men were convicted and sentenced to death for brutally raping a 23-year-old paramedical student and assaulting her friend on a bus on December 16, 2012.

The young woman had succumbed to her injuries at a hospital in Singapore.

Another accused, Ram Singh, hanged himself inside the prison, while a teenaged convict was let off in December 2015 after serving three years in a juvenile shelter home.

In September 2013, the four were sentenced to death by a city court. The order was upheld by the High Court in March 2014 and by the Supreme Court in May 2017.

The December 2012 gang rape sparked widespread outrage and triggered street protests in Delhi and other cities, prompting the governments at the Centre and the states to announce measures to reinforce the safety of women, and led to tougher laws.