New Delhi, A Delhi court on Tuesday reserved the order on an application moved by one of the convicts facing the gallows in Nirbhaya rape and murder case, Mukesh Singh, seeking quashing of death penalty on the ground that he was not in the national capital when the crime was committed.
Mukesh, through his counsel M.L. Sharma, filed an application claiming that he was arrested from Rajasthan and brought to Delhi on December 17, 2012, a day after the incident.
Sharma contended that the prosecution deliberately concealed the documentary evidence regarding picking Mukesh from Karoli in Rajasthan “just to falsely implicate him”.
Public Prosecutor Irfan Ahmad told the court that the application is frivolous and is a mere tactic to delay hanging.
He, along with three other convicts — Vinay, Akshay, and Pawan, is scheduled to be executed on March 20 at 5:30 a.m. for raping and murdering a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, dubbed later as Nirbhaya, on December 16, 2012.
In the application, he also claimed of being tortured in the Tihar Jail where he is currently lodged.