Nirbhaya Case: Court Reserves Order After Convict Mukesh Says Wasn’t Present at Crime Spot

In the plea, he had argued that he was arrested from Rajasthan on December 17, 2012, a day after the incident took place, and, as such, wasn't even present at the crime spot. He had also alleged that he was tortured in Tihar Jail.

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday reserved its order on a plea filed by Mukesh Singh, one of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang-rape case, in which he argued that he wasn’t even present at the crime spot, also alleging that he was tortured in Tihar Jail.

A Delhi Court reserves order on plea of one of convicts in 2012 Delhi gangrape case, Mukesh seeking quashing of death penalty claiming that he was not in Delhi when the gangrape incident took place.

— ANI (@ANI) March 17, 2020

The development came a day after his plea to file a fresh curative petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court,

Earlier today, the plea was filed in the court by his lawyer ML Sharma. In it, Mukesh had argued that he was arrested from Rajasthan on December 17, 2012, a day after the incident, and, as such, wasn’t even present at the crime spot.

2012 Delhi gang-rape: ML Sharma, lawyer of one of the death row convicts Mukesh, approaches a Delhi court & claims that he (Mukesh) was arrested from Rajasthan on 17th Dec, he was not there at the crime spot at the time of the incident. He has also alleged torture at Tihar Jail.

— ANI (@ANI) March 17, 2020

Mukesh, notably, was the first among the four death row convicts in the case to have exhausted all the legal options. The other three death row convicts in the case are Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma. The four are scheduled to be hanged at 5:30 AM on March 20 in Tihar Jail.

Today’s development can also be seen as yet another attempt by the convicts’ side to get their execution delayed. Their hanging has already been deferred thrice, all postponements coming this year itself, due to strategic filing of mercy pleas, curative petitions etc. by the convicts.

The three earlier dates on which the execution was to take place, but was postponed, were January 22, February 1 and March 22 respectively. The latest date was given by a Delhi court earlier this month after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy petition of Pawan, which meant that all four convicts had exhausted all their legal remedies.

In fact, in yet another attempt at delaying their execution, three of the convicts-Akshay, Pawan and Vinay-on Monday had ‘approached’ the International Court of Justice (ICJ), seeking a stay on their execution, just hours after the Supreme Court dismissed Mukesh’s petition.