The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea by Mukesh Singh, one of the four death-row convicts in the December 16, 2012, gang rape and murder case, challenging the trial court’s order rejecting his claim that he had not been in Delhi when the crime had taken place.
Nirbhaya case | SC quashes plea of convict Mukesh
Justice Brijesh Sethi ruled that there were no grounds to interfere in the detailed and reasoned order of the trial court.
“There is nothing on record to suggest that trial stands vitiated because material evidence was concealed. There is, thus, no infirmity, illegality or irregularity in the order passed by the trial court,” Justice Sethi said.
Separately, counsel for the four death row convicts moved a local court seeking a stay on their death penalty, on the ground that a second mercy plea from one of them was still pending.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana issued notices to the Tihar jail authorities and the police on the plea and said he would hear the matter on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the Delhi sessions court had rejected Singh’s plea, claiming that he was arrested from Rajasthan and brought to Delhi on December 17, 2012, and was not present in the city on December 16, when the crime took place. In his plea Singh also alleged that he had been tortured inside Tihar jail.
The trial court had asked the Bar Council of India (BCI) to ensure that Singh’s counsel was provided with appropriate sensitisation.
On March 5, a trial court issued fresh warrants fixing March 20, 5.30 a.m., as the time for the execution of convicts Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31).
On December 16, 2012, the paramedical student was gang raped and brutally assaulted by six men in a private bus and thrown out of the moving vehicle along with her male friend. The victims later died of their injuries.
The High Court and the Supreme Court had upheld the death sentences against the four convicts and the President has also rejected the mercy pleas of all four convicts.
