November 13, 2017

“There were discrepencies in the prosecution’s version about Mukesh’s presence in the bus on that night”

On Monday, the Apex Court said that next month it would hear the pleas of the 4 death row convicts of the December 16, 2012 gangrape & murder case, seeking a review of its verdict upholding the death sentence awarded to them.

So far, 1 of the convicts has filed a review petition; though the counsel for the other 3 convicts told a bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra that he’d file the application seeking review of the SC’s judgement within 3 weeks.

The Court said it’d hear the pleas on 12th December 2022.

The SC on 5th May had upheld the death penalty to the 4 convicts – Mukesh (29); Pawan (22); Vinay Sharma (23); Akshay Kumar Singh (31), saying that the “brutal, barbaric & diabolic nature” of the crime could create a “tsunami of shock” to destroy a civilized society.

During the hearing, advocate M.L Sharma, representing convict Mukesh, told the bench that there were certain issues which were not considered by the apex court while upholding the capital punishment awarded to him.

He claimed before the bench, also comprising Justices R. Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan, that there were discrepencies in the prosecution’s version about Mukesh’s presence in the bus on that night and one of the key witness had improved his statement in the court in this regard.

He also alleged that the convict was tortured by the police and he had filed application on this issue before the trial court as well as the Delhi High Court.

 

When Adv. Sharma urged the bench to seek a reply from Delhi Police on the review petition, the Court referred to a constitution bench judgement & said that a review plea has to be heard within 30 minutes & there wasn’t any need of issuing notice on the plea. Mr. Sharma then sought some time to argue the matter.

“Adv. M.L Sharma, appearing for Mukesh, prays for some time to argue the matter. Adv. A.P Singh, appearing for Akshay, Pawan & Vinay says that review applications on their behalf’ll be filed within 3 weeks from hence. Let all the review petitions be listed for hearing on 12th December” the bench said.

Another accused in the case, Ram Singh had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail, while the convicted juvenile has come out of the reformation home after serving a 3 years term.

A 23 year old paramedic student was gangraped on the night of December 16, 2012 inside a moving bus in South Delhi by a gang of 6 persons & severely assaulted before being thrown out naked. The girl succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

Source - ptinews.com