Court dismisses Nirbhaya convict Mukesh’s petition

He said he was not in Delhi that day

18/03/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ,NEW  DELHI/PATNA

A Delhi court on Tuesday rejected the plea of Mukesh Singh, one of the four death row convicts in the December 16, 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, seeking to quash his death penalty claiming that he was not in Delhi on the day of the incident.

In his plea, Mukesh said 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.

The plea also alleged that Mukesh was tortured in Tihar jail.

The public prosecutor told Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana that Mukesh’s plea was frivolous and a tactic to delay the hanging on March 20.

The judge asked the Bar Council of India to give appropriate sensitisation exercise to Mukesh’s counsel M.L. Sharma.

On March 5, a trial court issued fresh warrants, with March 20 at 5.30 a.m., as the date for the execution of Mukesh Singh, 32, Pawan Gupta, 25, Vinay Sharma, 26, and Akshay Kumar Singh, 31.

In another development, the National Human Rights Commission dismissed a plea by the mother of Mukesh Singh seeking its intervention to prevent the death sentence being carried out.

Meanwhile, Akshay’s wife filed a divorce petition in a court in Aurangabad district in northeastern Bihar.