Supreme Court: A bench head by R. Banumathi, J has reserved the order on the issue of rejection of mercy petition of Vinay Kumar Sharma, one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case. The bench will pronounce the verdict tomorrow at 2:00 PM.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the Delhi government, said that convict Vinay Sharma was not kept in solitary confinement as it was argued by convict’s lawyer AP Singh in the Supreme Court.
“He was not kept in solitary confinement, as argued by advocate AP Singh. There is a limited scope of judicial review, as the President of India had rejected the mercy petition after SC reserved order duly considering and applying his mind,”
He further added,
“The Home Minister did not do it (dispose off the matter) immediately, as the Joint Secretary and Home Secretary discussed the matter in a detailed manner. The crime committed by the convict, Vinay Kumar Sharma, fell in the rarest of the rare category and did not fall in the category of mercy,”
Lawyer, AP Singh, representing Vinay, had earlier argued that the convict was kept in illegal confinement and “illegally tortured” in Tihar Jail. He argued,
“Vinay Sharma was kept in illegal confinement. He 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,”
He 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,”
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.”
Singh added that the “non-application” of mind by President of India is one ground for commutation of death sentence to life imprisonment.
“Why the mercy petition is rejected by the President of India so hurriedly? What is the need of doing it so hurriedly by the President of India.? Justice hurried is justice buried. Bifurcation of crime, committed by accused (convict) persons, was not done properly by the investigation team in the case,”
Vinay filed the petition in the top court against President Ram Nath Kovind’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.
The 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people before being thrown out on the road. She died on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. Besides Mukesh, three others – Akshay, Vinay, and Pawan are facing the gallows for the heinous crime that shook the entire nation. One of the six accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail here.
The Court had on May 5, 2017, upheld the death sentence of all the four convicts in the brutal December 16 gangrape and murder case. The Court, while dismissing the appeal of the four convicts, had said that the crime fell in the rarest of rare category and “shaken the conscience of the society.”
On July 9, 2018 , the Court had dismissed the review pleas filed by the three convicts in the case, saying no grounds have been made out by them for review of the 2017 verdict.
On December 18, 2019, the 3-judge bench of R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna, JJ rejected the review petition of the last convict, Akshay Kumar Singh, seeking modification and leniency.
On January 21, 2020, the 3-judge bench of R. Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna, JJ had dismissed the Special Leave Petition filed by Pawan Kumar Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in the Nirbhaya Gang rape case where he “reagitated” the plea of juvenility.
A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board and was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term. Two of the convicts are yet to file curative petitions before the Supreme Court.
Another accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail in March 2013 during the trial. Another convict, who was a minor at the time of the crime, was sent to a reform facility and released after three years of the crime.
