Dec 2012 gangrape: Convict says he was not in Delhi on day of crime

Three days before their execution, one of the four convicts in the December 16, 2012, gangrape-murder case moved a Delhi court on Tuesday seeking a stay on the death penalty claiming that he was not in the city on the day of the crime. The Delhi court has reserved its order on the petition filed by Mukesh Kumar Singh and will pronounce its verdict shortly.

In his petition before Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana, Mukesh Kumar claimed that he was arrested from Rajasthan and brought to Delhi on Dec 17, 2012 — one day after the crime. The convict also alleged that he was tortured inside the Tihar jail.

The public prosecutor, however, told the court that his petition was frivolous and a tactic to delay the execution.

The four men, convicted for the gangrape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, are scheduled to be hanged on March 20 at 5.30 am. This is the fourth death warrant against the convicts, with the earlier three being deferred pending the exhaustion of legal remedies by them.

On Monday, the Supreme Court dismissed Mukesh Singh's plea to restore all his legal remedies. Mukesh had claimed he was misled by his lawyers and sought the court's directions to allow him to appeal against the death sentence.

Later, three convicts — Vinay Sharma, Pawan Kumar Gupta, and Akshay Kumar Singh — moved the International Court of Justice appealing for an urgent hearing to prevent the execution. The three convicts moved the petition through their lawyer AP Singh, calling the execution of death warrants illegal.

(Inputs and image from theindianexpress.com)