Delhi court reserves order on Nirbhaya convict's plea claiming innocence

A Delhi court on Tuesday reserved its order on a plea filed by one of the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder convicts -- Mukesh Singh -- seeking quashing of death penalty claiming that he was not in Delhi when the crime was committed.

Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana reserved the order after hearing arguments from both the sides.

Advocate ML Sharma, appearing for Mukesh Singh, claimed that the convict was arrested from Karoli in Rajasthan on December 17, 2012, and that the prosecution has fraudulently withheld the documentation carried out by Delhi and Rajasthan police with respect to the apprehension.

Sharma claimed that if the prosecution has not withheld the document then Mukesh would have been pronounced innocent by the court and said that fraud vitiates all the proceedings and this court should accordingly quash the trial court's death sentence order and direct police to file verification report in this subject matter.

Special Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan and Public Prosecutor Irfan Ahmad opposed the plea saying that Mukesh has filed the application with mischievous attempt to stall the death sentence scheduled on March 20.

The prosecution also told the court that Mukesh's application is without merit, not maintainable and deserves to be dismissed.

"By concealing these documents and facts, belongs to State, State succeeds implicate Mukesh and to procure death sentence and conviction of the applicant Mukesh," advocate Sharma said.

This comes as the four convicts in the 2012 case -- Mukesh Singh, Akshay Singh Thakur, Pawan Gupta, and Vinay Sharma -- are scheduled to be hanged at 5:30 am on March 20.

Meanwhile, the convicts have also filed petitions in a Delhi court, the Delhi High Court, Election Commission and Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal against their execution.

The case pertains to the brutal gang-rape and killing of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in the national capital. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.