The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the petitionagainst the rejection of the mercy petition filed by Nirbhaya gang-rape case convict Vinay Sharma. He in his petition had claimed that President Ram NathKovind had not considered the "mental stability" he suffered due to torture injail while rejecting his mercy petition.

This was part of Vinay Sharma's last-ditch effort toescape the death sentence handed to him and three other convicts for the brutalsexual assault that took place on December 16, 2012. It may be mentioned here thatthe four convicts have been filing petition after petition in an attempt todelay their execution.

Also, a trial court had stayed "until furtherorders" the execution of four convicts — Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), PawanGupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31) — on January 31. Ofthe six men, one was found hanging in jail. The youngest, just short of 18 whenthe crime was committed, was released after three years in a reform home.