Hours before execution, Nirbhaya convicts challenge death sentence at Delhi HC

The petition was filed by Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma in an attempt to get a last-minute reprieve from their execution on Friday.

All four convicts in 2012 Nirbhaya rape and murder case will be hanged at 5:30 am on Friday, a Delhi court earlier in the day said, citing that the convicts had no legal remedies left.

The Patiala House Court rejected all petitions of the convicts Mukesh Singh(32), Pawan Gupta(25), Vinay Sharma(26) and Aksha Thakur(31).

In another delaying tactic, AP Singh, the lawyer of the convicts, filed a petition that the convicts had their execution be stopped as their legal remedies were are pending in different courts.

"No legal remedies are pending as of now. Pawan and Akshay's second mercy plea was also not entertained by the President of India," Public Prosecutor Irfan Ahmad told the court, NDTV reported.

The Public Prosecutor told the court the defense counsel could move 100 applications in different courts, but none of them were strictly legal remedies.

The Supreme Court also rejected Mukesh Singh's petition claiming that he was not in Delhi at the time of the crime.

Counsel Manohar Lal Sharma argued that the papers relating to the arrest and remand of Mukesh Singh are documents between two state governments.

Defence contended that the date and time show Mukesh Singh was in Karoli, Rajasthan, at the starting of 17th December.

The apex court said this has been considered.

The Supreme Court on Thursday also dismissed a curative petition filed by the Nirbhaya case convict, Pawan Gupta, on the issue of his being an alleged minor at the time of the crime.

"The curative petition is devoid of merits and accordingly we dismiss it,"  a six-judge apex court bench, headed by Justice N V Ramana said, in its order after an in-chamber hearing at 1025 hrs today.

It may be recalled that on March 5, Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana had issued for the fourth-time a fresh date for execution of death warrants on March 20 at 0530 hrs against the four convicts--Mukesh Singh, Pawan Kumar Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Singh for the December 16, 2012, gang rape-murder of the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern.

The victim had died a few days later.

While one of the convicts had committed suicide in jail, the juvenile was released after serving three years in a rehabilitation home.