The Delhi government on Wednesday said that the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya case will not be executed on January 22 as a mercy petition has been filed by one of them with the President.
The four convicts — Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Akshay Kumar Singh and Pawan Gupta are to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail, a Delhi court had issued their death warrants last week.
The authorities said under the rules, it would have to wait for the mercy plea to be decided by the President before executing the death warrant.
None of the four convicts can be executed on January 22 at 7am unless the mercy plea is decided, the court was told.
The Supreme Court had on Tuesday rejected curative petitions filed by Mukesh Singh and Vinay Sharma.
The 23-year-old paramedic student was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 in a moving bus in the national capital.
She passed away at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore while undergoing the treatment.
