Nirbhaya case: Delhi court disposes convicts' lawyer's petition

Rejecting the contention of the counsel representing the Nirbhaya convicts that the prison authorities were not handing over certain documents required to file mercy and curative pleas, a Delhi court on Saturday (January 25) said no further directions were required in the rape and murder case, and disposed of his plea.

This comes on a day when one of the convicts Mukesh Singh moved the Supreme Court seeking judicial review of the rejection of mercy petition by the President, reported ANI.

Pointing to the top court judgement in the 2014 Shatrughan Chauhan v Union of India case, the convict has contended that he has complied with the laid down guidelines in it and challenged the rejection of his mercy plea.

Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Kumar Jain said the convicts’ lawyer can take pictures of the relevant documents, diary and paintings from the Tihar jail authorities.

Earlier, opposing the arguments of the defendant, the public prosecutor, appearing for the Delhi Police, told the court that the Tihar jail authorities have supplied all the relevant documents sought by the lawyer of the death row convicts in the case.

Also read | Tihar jail supplied all documents sought by Nirbhaya convicts’ lawyer: Prosecution

He claimed that the convicts are only adopting ‘delaying tactics’.

“The entire process is to defeat the law. We have already supplied all the documents. We procured all the documents from all the jails where they went,” the counsel said.

He then produced before the court the diary of one of the convicts, Vinay Kumar Sharma, which he had named “Darinda”, and several paintings and other documents.

“These are all we have. If the court directs, we can hand these over to the convicts right now,” the counsel said.

Advocate AP Singh, appearing for the convicts, alleged that Vinay was being slow poisoned and was hospitalised, but his medical reports are not being supplied to him.

He further said though he had received some documents Friday night from the jail authorities, Vinay’s personal diary and medical documents have not been supplied.

Also read | Tihar authorities delaying in handing over docs, Nirbhaya convicts tell court

“They (Tihar jail authorities) say there is no such record. Vinay was being slow poisoned. That’s why he was sent to hospital. Vinay made several paintings about that and we want to inform the President about it. Also, what he earned from those paintings needs to be informed,” Singh said.

He also alleged that another convict Pawan Singh’s head was ‘split open’ in Mandoli jail and he was shifted to a hospital but those documents were not supplied to the counsel too.

The documents related to the third convict Akshay Kumar Singh’s health were also not supplied and were required to file his curative and mercy petitions, the lawyer said.

Singh had moved an application alleging that the jail authorities were yet to give the documents which are required to file the mercy petition for Vinay (26) and curative petitions for Akshay (31) and Pawan (25).

The Supreme Court recently dismissed the curative petitions of other two convicts — Vinay and Mukesh Singh (32). Mukesh’s mercy petition was rejected by the President earlier this month.

Also read | Centre urges SC for victim-centric rules in death penalty cases

The hanging of all four is to take place on February 1 at 6 am, according to the court order.

The 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people before she was thrown out on the road. She was flown to a hospital in Singapore where she died.

(With inputs from agencies)