Lucknow: The Supreme Court on Thursday said it would hear a review petition by Nirbhaya case convict Akshay Singh Thakur on December 17, amid mounting speculation that the four men convicted in the rape-and-murder case may be executed soon.

Akshay Singh Thakur, who had not filed the review plea earlier with the other three convicts, had moved the apex court with the petition on Wednesday. One of the four condemned men in the case, he moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday for a review of its 2017 judgment, saying “executions only kill criminals, not the crime.”

The Tihar Jail in Delhi has asked Uttar Pradesh to provide two hangmen on short notice, amid reports that four men convicted in the Nirbhaya rape-and-murder case may be executed soon.

Uttar Pradesh's Additional Director General (Prisons) Anand Kumar told reporters on Thursday that the department is ready to provide the hangmen. "There are no hangmen with the Tihar Jail administration for those who were awarded capital punishment and are not left with any constitutional and legal remedy," Kumar said.

"As they were aware that we have two hangmen in UP, they asked us to provide them whenever needed on short notice," the ADG (Prisons) added.

The prisons department had received a request in this regard from the Tihar administration through fax on December 9.

The letter, however, makes no mention of the convicts to be hanged but states there may be requirements.

The letter, according to sources, mentioned that some convicts in the jail were awarded capital punishment and their legal and constitutional remedies had been exhausted.

The four convicts in the Nirbhaya case -- Pawan Gupta, Akshay Thakur, Mukesh Singh and Vinay Sharma -- are on death row for two years.

The UP prison administration has two hangmen on its rolls, one in Lucknow and another in Meerut.

Six people were convicted for brutally raping and murdering a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus while she was on her way back home on December 16, 2012.

She died from her injuries but the brutal gang rape sparked a nationwide fury that led to a new legislation to deal with such heinous crimes.

Of the six people convicted in the case, one was a minor, who was sent to a rehabilitation centre, and another, Ram Singh, committed suicide in the Tihar Jail.