SC dismisses Delhi gangrape convict's plea to restore his legal remedies

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed December 16 gangrape convict Mukesh Singh's plea to restore all his legal remedies ahead of his hanging on March 20. Mukesh claimed he was misled by his lawyers and sought the court's directions to allow him to appeal against the death sentence.

Mukesh had sought quashing of all orders passed by courts and the rejection of his mercy petition by the President since the day his curative petition was dismissed by the apex court on the ground that the earlier lawyer Vrinda Grover had misled him. The plea, filed through advocate M L Sharma, also sought a CBI probe into alleged "criminal conspiracy" and "fraud" hatched by the Centre, the Delhi government and advocate Vrinda Grover, who is the amicus curiae in the case.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah held Mukesh's plea as not maintainable saying that the review petition and the curative petition have both been dismissed in the case.

Meanwhile, Tihar jail authorities have started preparations for the hanging. Officials said the hangman, Pawan Jallad, has been asked to come to Tihar from Meerut on March 17, and a 'dummy execution' will be conducted in the next two days to test the ropes and other equipment.

A Delhi court set the execution of the four convicts — Mukesh Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, and Akshay Kumar Singh — for March 20 at 5.30 am. DG (Tihar) Sandeep Goel said the jail has not received fresh pleas or petitions from the convicts over the weekend.

Jail officials said that the execution will be done in jail number 4. "Regular health check-ups are being done and they also being counselled. CCTV cameras and jail guards keep a vigil on them to check their diet and prevent any case of misconduct," they added.

(Inputs and image from theinidianexpress.com)