Am sure they will be hanged on January 22: Nirbhaya's father

Badrinath said that there was a 99 per cent possibility that the execution would take place on January 22.

"He (Singh) was given many chances to use his right of follow up on his mercy petition pending with the President but his advocate did nothing about it. Even the Patiala House court gave them 20 days time to find out," he said.

The convict had asked that he be given 14 days time between the rejection of his mercy plea and the scheduled date for execution.

"He has already exhausted that fourteen days time," Badrinath said.

"Why did he file the curative petition two days ago, what was his lawyer doing all this while when the jail authorities and Patiala House court had given him time? We are happy that the mercy petition has been rejected. I congratulate the President for his decision. It will instill fear in criminals who commit such ghastly crimes. We are confident that the hanging of criminals will take place on January 22 itself," he added.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday rejected the mercy petition of the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case convict Mukesh Singh. The President's decision comes a day after the Union Home Ministry on Thursday night sent Singh's mercy petition to him recommending its rejection, hours after the plea was received from the Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal's office for review.

A Delhi court on Thursday had directed the Tihar Jail authorities to submit a report regarding the pendency of the mercy petition, one of the four death row convicts in Nirbhaya's gang rape and murder.

The 23-year-old woman was brutally gang raped and tortured on December 16, 2012, which later led to her death. All the six accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. One of the accused was a minor and appeared before a juvenile justice court, while another accused committed suicide in Tihar Jail.

The remaining four were convicted and sentenced to death by a trial court in September 2013, and the verdict was confirmed by the Delhi High Court in March 2014 and upheld in May 2017 by the Supreme Court, which also dismissed their review petitions and curative petitions.