The Tihar Jail Superintendent today informed that all the gangrape convicts in the Nirbhaya case were handed over the notice of their execution on October 29 and notified that they have a window of 7 days to apply for ‘Mercy Petition’ against their capital sentence before the President.
Superintendent, Tihar Jail to the four Nirbhaya case convicts: If you wish to file the ‘Mercy Petition’ in your case against the capital sentence before the President, you can file it within 7 days of the receipt of this notice, through prison authorities… (2/3)
— ANI (@ANI) October 31, 2019
In a legal notice issued by the authorities on October 29, the convicts were told that they have only seven days within the receipt of the notice to file the mercy petition. The notice read, “It is hereby informed that in case if you have not yet filed the mercy petition and if you wish to file the mercy petition in your case against the capital sentence before the Hon’ble President of India, you can file it within seven days of the receipt of this notice through prison authorities, failing which it will be presumed that you are not willing to file mercy petition in your case and the jail administration will initiate further necessary legal proceedings as per law.”
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The rapists were apprised that in case they don’t choose to file a mercy petition, necessary legal proceedings will follow as per the law. The four convicts may soon be sent to gallows in case they refuse to file a mercy petition or in the event that President rejects their mercy petition.
The four accused were found guilty of rape, murder and destruction of evidence in September 2013 and sentenced to death by hanging. The Delhi High Court upheld the sentence, noting that the crime, which prompted widespread protests over sexual crimes against women in the country, fell into the judicial system’s “rarest of rare category” that allows capital punishment.
The convicts then appealed in the top court but the Supreme Court rejected the convicts’ appeal stating that they had committed “a barbaric crime” that had “shaken society’s conscience,” and maintained the death sentence of the four convicts who had been charged with rape and murder. In July 2018, the Supreme Court rejected a review petition by three of the convicts.
