NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed the plea of Mukesh Singh, one of the four death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, that challenged a trial court order which rejected his claim he was not in the national capital when the crime was committed on December 16, 2012.
Justice Brijesh Sethi said the various grounds, like Ram Singh could not have driven the bus in which the offence was committed as he was disabled and that Mukesh was tortured in jail, taken in the plea were “frivolous” and the intention was to delay the execution.
The high court said if Mukesh was tortured in jail, he had ample opportunities to raise the issue, especially when he met his relatives and this argument was being taken at this stage “only to delay the proceedings”.
“These points ought to have been taken at the appropriate stage and at this belated stage, the argument has only been raised with an intention to delay the execution of the sentence,” the high court said.
On March 5, a trial court issued fresh warrants for hanging on March 20 at 5.30 am of all convicts in the case -- Mukesh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Singh (31). The high court further said there were no grounds to interfere in the “detailed and reasoned” trial court order.