A senior official of the Home Department said that the Delhi government has recommended the Lieutenant-Governor to reject the mercy petition of one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya case.

In a letter to the Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal, the government said, “It is the fittest case to reject the mercy petition, keeping in view the heinous and gravest crime of extreme brutality committed by the appellant.”

Baijal will now send the recommendation on the mercy petition to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. The President will then take a final call, reported, The Hindu.

One of the convicts facing the gallows in the gang-rape and murder case, Vinay Sharma, had filed a mercy petition before President Ram Nath Kovind.

Further, The National Commission for Women (NCW) has urged President Ram Nath Kovind to reject the mercy petition of the accused. They said that this would deter other people from committing such crimes.

Sharma has been in Tihar jail since his arrest in the case. While Sharma had filed a mercy plea, another convict, Mukesh, had refused to do so. Convict Ram Singh was found hanging inside the jail. The juvenile involved in the case has served his maximum sentence of three years imprisonment in a reform facility.

Akshay Kumar Singh, the fourth death row convict, had not filed a review plea in the apex court. All these men are on death row for the brutal gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi in 2012.

Also Read: Nirbhaya To Hyderabad Vet: No Short Lived Outrage Will Help Bring Down Rape Culture