Medical report not considered while rejecting Nirbhaya convict's mercy plea, says lawyer

The lawyer representing Vinay Sharma, one of the convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case, said on Thursday that the social investigation report and medical status report of the rapist was not taken into consideration by President Ram Nath Kovind while rejecting the mercy petition.

Vinay's lawyer AP Singh made the comments in the Supreme Court, which heard the plea of the convict.

"The social investigation report, medical status report, and nominal role of the petitioner Vinay Sharma has not been taken into consideration by the President while rejecting the mercy petition," he said.

The lawyer said that Vinay was kept in illegal confinement and "illegally tortured" in Tihar Jail.

"Vinay Sharma was kept in illegal confinement. He (Vinay) was illegally tortured in Tihar jail prison. I am here only to seek justice, where can I go for justice? That is why I am pleading here before the court for justice. They are not terrorists, they are not habitual offenders. These are the grounds for mercy to these convicts," Singh said.

Singh claimed that there has been a history of physical assaults on Vinay.

"Vinay had been sent for psychiatric treatment on many occasions. The petitioner has suffered adverse mental condition and faced immense trauma," he said.

The lawyer added, "Vinay should have been treated with proper medical treatment for his poor mental health. He was provided complete medical treatment for his mental illness."

Vinay filed the petition in the top court against the President's decision to reject his mercy plea.

The convict, through his lawyer AP Singh, has requested the death penalty to be commuted to life imprisonment.

On February 1, Vinay's mercy petition was rejected by the President.

On January 31, the death sentence of four convicts Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur were stayed by a lower court till further orders.

All the four convicts are currently lodged in Tihar Jail.

The case pertains to the gang-rape and brutalising 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 Delhi. She died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.

One of the five adults accused, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail during the trial of the case.