Nirbhaya case: MHA recommends President to reject mercy pleas

New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday recommended President Ram Nath Kovind to reject the mercy plea of 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape convict Vinay Sharma.

The ministry had sent the file of the petition to the President after it received the mercy plea of the convict. The Delhi government has also rejected the plea.

The parents of Nirbhaya have moved the President’s office seeking rejection of the mercy petition.

The 23-year-old was brutally raped in the national capital in December 2012 and subsequently died.

The letter by her parents states that the mercy petition is a “deliberate” attempt to avoid the execution of the death sentence and hamper the dissemination of justice.

They stated that the trauma, pain and the agony suffered by them is unbearable and the wait for justice is getting longer and longer.

In 2017, the Supreme Court had dismissed the appeal and the review petition of the convicts and confirmed the sentence awarded.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court and the apex court had dismissed the appeal of the convict Vinay Sharma and had upheld the sentence pronounced by the trial court in the matter.

Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi had said that the culprits must be hanged to death.

“I have been running from pillar to post for the last 7 years to get justice in Nirbhaya case. I appeal to the justice system of this country and the government, that Nirbhaya’s culprits must be hanged to death, at the earliest,” she said.