The decision on the hanging of one of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya rape-murder case of Deember 2012 should reach its finality on Wednesday, with a three member bench of the Supreme Court, comprising R. Banumathi, A.S. Bopanna and Ashok Bhushan delivering its order on a plea that challenged the President's rejection of Mukesh Singh's mercy plea earlier this month.
Mukesh filed his mercy petition on January 14. The Ministry of Home Affairs forwarded it to President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17, and the president rejected the plea in the first half of January 18 itself. Mukesh's advocate Anjana Prakash alleged “non application of mind” by the President in rejecting the mercy plea. When the court asked her how she had made that allegation, she alleged that the president had not been furnished with all the documents relevant to the case.
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Prakash made a shocking accusation in court, saying that Mukesh had been forced into performing sexual acts with co-convict Akshay Thakur in Tihar jail. She also questioned why Mukesh had been put into solitary confinement before the rejection of his mercy plea. Prakash also brought up the instance of the death of Ram Singh—Mukesh's brother and a co-accused in the crime. Ram was found dead in his cell in 2013, while the case was still ongoing. He was found hanging from the window of his cell, with his shirt as noose. The authorities dismissed it as a case of suicide despite the mysterious circumstances that the other cellmates seemed unaware of the death.
In a recently released book, Black Warrant: Confessions of a Tihar Jailer, author Sunil Gupta, who was jailer at Tihar for 35 years, also says that Ram Singh's death could not have been suicide.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta noted that all the “relevant” documents had been provided. He claimed that the convict was not in solitary confinement, but had been kept secluded for his own safety. Pooh poohing the allegations of sexual abuse, Mehta pointed out that anyway such claims were irrelevant to the mercy petition. He also pointed out that delay [in disposing a mercy petition] can be an argument, but deciding a mercy [petition] expeditiously can never be an argument.
The case was heard on a priority basis after the Chief Justice of India on Monday said that execution case would be given top priority.
Tihar jail had set February 1 as the date of hanging of the four convicts. However, the others have not exhausted all legal remedies available to them yet. While Thakur's curative petition has been dismissed, the other two—Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma—have not yet filed their curative petitions. None of the three has filed mercy petitions yet.
On the allegation that the plea against the mercy petition was a delaying tactic, Prakash said that the hanging had been fixed for February 1.
“Today is only January 28. We are not delaying,'' she said.
