Dec 16 gangrape case: convicts claim their arrest was without

Two of the four death row convicts in the December 16 gangrape case today contended before the Delhi High Court that police had arrested them without following proper procedure.
Appearing for convicts Mukesh and Pawan Kumar Gupta before the bench of justices Reva Khetrapal and Pratibha Rani, advocate M L Sharma alleged that without any evidence in hand Delhi police had arrested them on the basis of media report.
The lawyer also claimed convict Mukesh, brother of main accused Ram Singh, was arrested from a village in Rajasthan a day after the incident had taken place in Delhi on December 16, 2013 but police had shown his arrest on December 18.

Further, the counsel alleged his clients were tortured by the police and they were not provided with free legal aid.
Referring to some the Supreme Court judgements, the lawyer argued before the bench that even the magistrate, before whom the accused were produced soon after their arrest, had failed to look into the issue of providing free legal aid to the accused.
Beginning his arguments on merits of the case, the defence counsel referred to the police chargesheet and said no FIR was registered in this case.

His arguments remained inconclusive and will continue tomorrow.
The police had initially arrested six persons, including a juvenile. However, main accused Ram Singh was found hanging in his cell at Tihar, so the proceedings against him stood abated.

The juvenile was handed three years at the correction home prescribed under the Juvenile Justice Act. The adult accused Akshay, Vinay, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh were sentenced to death by a trial court in September.
On September 13, while awarding capital punishment to Mukesh, Akshay, Pawan and Vinay, the trial court had referred the case to the high court for confirmation of the sentence.