Supreme Court on Saturday fixed March 16 for hearing a petition filed by one of the death row convicts in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case, Mukesh Singh, seeking action against his former advocate, for restoration of his legal remedies.
The new development comes after a Delhi court on Thursday issued a fresh death warrant for the four convicts — Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Singh Thakur, and Mukesh Singh — in the December 2012 Nirbhaya case for their execution at 5:30 am on March 20.
2012 Delhi gang-rape case: Supreme Court today fixed March 16 (Monday), to hear a petition filed by one of the Nirbhaya death row convicts, Mukesh Singh, seeking action against his former advocate, for the restoration of his legal remedies in the case.
— ANI (@ANI) March 7, 2020
On March 6, the current lawyer of Nirbhaya gang-rape convict, advocate ML Sharma, had filed a petition in the Supreme Court against his former lawyer Vrinda Grower. Advocate Sharma alleged that convict Mukesh Singh’s former lawyer Grover had allegedly hatched a criminal conspiracy against Mukesh with Delhi Police.
The petition claimed the limitation period to file a curative petition was three years from the date of dismissal of the review plea and sought to “restore” the rights available to him and allow him to file curative and mercy petitions till July 2021.
A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as ”Nirbhaya”, was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.
Six people, including the four convicts, Ram Singh and a juvenile were named as accused.
The trial of the five men began in a special fast-track court in March 2013.
Ram Singh, the prime accused, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in Tihar jail days after the trial began. The juvenile, who was said to be the most brutal of the attackers, was put in a correctional home for three years.
The juvenile was released in 2015 and sent to an undisclosed location amid concerns over a threat to his life. He, when released, was 20 years old.
The trial of the four adults began in a special fast-track court in March 2013 and they were sentenced to death in September 2013 by the trial court.