New Delhi, A Delhi court on Tuesday pulled up the counsel for Nirbhaya rape convict Mukesh for making “false averments” and dismissed an application seeking quashing of death penalty.
Mukesh, through his counsel M.L. Sharma, filed an application claiming that the prosecution deliberately concealed certain documentary evidence to falsely implicate him and secure the death sentence. He sought quashing of death penalty.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana observed, “I deem it appropriate that the conduct of the counsel (M.L. Sharma) for the convict needs to be brought to the notice of the Bar Council of India for appropriate sensitisation exercise.”
“The counsel has not only made a false averment before this court but has also miserably failed to discharge his duties as a counsel to bring all the facts before the court for effective dispensation of justice,” the judge added.
The court also stated that duty cannot be extended to the extent of procuring relief to the client by resorting to schemes and strategies.
“Unfortunately, some mischievous brains have been projecting and consciously nurturing a misplaced notion that there is a premium over dishonesty and mendacity in this country.”
“It would be axiomatic to observe that time is a very precious judicial entity and is required to be very sagaciously spent,” the court added.
Mukesh and three other convicts — Vinay, Akshay, and Pawan are scheduled to be executed on March 20 at 5:30 a.m. for brutally raping and murdering a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, later dubbed as ‘Nirbhaya’, on December 16, 2012.
In the application, Mukesh claimed that he was not in the national capital when the crime was committed and was arrested from Rajasthan and brought to Delhi on December 17, 2012, a day after the incident.
The application stated that the documents pertaining to him being picked up from Karoli in Rajasthan were hidden to implicate him as “driver and rapist.”
It also contended that disability certificate of deceased Ram Singh, alleged torture of Mukesh and Rs four crore bribe allegedly paid to procure death sentence, was also hidden from the court.
“State concealed following vital documents in the trial court and secured final order to execute death sentence. Trial is outcome of concealment of vital documents by fixing the petitioner in place of actual accused persons, which is liable to be quashed in the interest of justice,” the application stated.
M.L. Sharma told the court that concealment of document is a grave fraud.
During the course of proceedings, Public Prosecutor Irfan Ahmad told the court that the application is frivolous, devoid of merits and is a mere tactic to delay the execution.
