SC to hear Nirbhaya convict's plea against Delhi HC order rejecting innocence claim

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a petition filed by Mukesh Singh, one of the death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, challenging a Delhi High Court's order rejecting his claim that he was not in the national capital when the crime was committed.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice R Banumathi and also comprising Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Ashok Bhushan will hear the matter at 2:30 pm today.

Advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, through the petition filed on behalf of Mukesh Singh, sought directions to bring call record, documents and reports of his client through any probe agency and passed appropriate directions and measure to ensure justice in the matter.

Delhi High Court had on Wednesday dismissed the plea seeking quashing of his death penalty claiming he was not in the city when the incident happened in New Delhi on December 16, 2012.

Earlier today, the apex court dismissed the curative petition of Pawan Gupta, another convict in the matter, who claimed juvenility at the time of the crime.

This comes as the four convicts -- Mukesh Singh, Akshay Singh Thakur, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta -- are scheduled to be hanged at 5.30 am on March 20.

Meanwhile, several other petitions are also pending in the matter in different courts.

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.