Nirbhaya case: SC declines plea of death-row convict Mukesh seeking restoration of legal remedies

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The Supreme Court Monday refused to entertain the plea of Mukesh Singh, one of the four death-row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, seeking restoration of legal remedies alleging that his earlier counsel misled and forced him to sign the papers. A bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah heard submissions of lawyer M L Sharma, appearing for Mukesh, and rejected the plea by terming it as "not maintainable" in view of the fact that both the review and the curative pleas in the case have been dismissed.

The apex court had on July 9, 2018 dismissed the review plea of Mukesh against its judgement; later, his curative and mercy pleas were rejected by the top court and President Ram Nath Kovind respectively.

On March 5, a trial court issued fresh warrants with March 20, 5.30 am, as the date for the execution of the convicts — Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31).

Mukesh in his fresh plea had sought the CBI probe into alleged "criminal conspiracy" and "fraud" hatched by the Centre, the Delhi government and advocate Vrinda Grover, who is the amicus curiae in the case.

It said: "Petitioner (Mukesh) is victim of criminal conspiracy and fraud played and hatched jointly by the R-1 (Ministry of Home Affairs), R-2 (Delhi government) and R-3 (Vrinda Grover) and other advocate who appeared in the sessions court, high court and the Supreme Court in the petitioner's death warrant case.

"They compelled him to sign various papers under threat of session court order (which was never issued by the session court) stating that the court has directed her to secure various signed documents from him to file various petitions, including curative petition, on his behalf in the high court and the Supreme Court in his death sentence case."

At the outset, the bench made clear that the apex court had dismissed the curative plea filed by the convict through lawyer Vrinda Grover, who was acting as an amicus curiae, and asked: "How can we pass an order against our own order".

It said once the person concerned has signed the curative petition then later he cannot say that it should not have been filed.

The lawyer said: "The signature (of the convict) was obtained by threatening him."

The court took strong note of the statement and said the curative plea was not heard in an open court and such plea was between the court and the convict only.

"You are making a very serious allegations of fraud against a lawyer of this court. What's the source of your knowledge," it said.

The bench said the curative plea was filed by Mukesh after the issuance of death warrant and no convict waits for more time for after this.

"You would have been hanged if you had not filed the curative petition. It saved you. You have availed of your remedy," the bench said, adding that either the plea be withdrawn or it will be dismissed.

Sharma then withdrew the petition.

The convict, in the plea, had contended that the Centre, the Delhi government and the advocate concerned "knowingly and deliberately" for vested and political interests hatched a joint criminal conspiracy against him and had visited Tihar Jail and asking him to sign various documents.

The plea had said the lawyer asked him to sign 'vakalatnamas' stating that the session court issued an order to get various documents signed by him to file curative petitions for him in all courts.

"Being pressurised/feared due to so-called session court order, the petitioner signed various sets of vakalatnama for her and signed other papers for her. Recently the petitioner came to know there was no such session court order," the had plea said.

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' (fearless), was gangraped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012. She died after a fortnight.

Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused. Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail days after the trial began in the case.

The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.