‘Pleas by Dec 16 killers designed to frustrate law’
NEW DELHI: Solicitor general Tushar Mehta told the Delhi high court at a special hearing on Sunday there is a deliberate, calculated and well-thought-out design by the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder convicts to “frustrate mandate of law” by getting their execution delayed.
Justice Suresh Kait, after hearing lengthy arguments from both the MHA and those who represented the convicts, reserved his order. The Centre has sought setting aside of a trial court order staying the execution of the four convicts. Appearing for the Centre, SG Tushar Mehta, ASGs Maninder Acharya and KM Natraj, and advocate Amit Mahajan, told the court the convicts whose mercy pleas have been rejected can be hanged, and all of them need not to be hanged together.
NEWDELHI: Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Sunday told the Delhi High Court at a special hearing that there is a deliberate, calculated and well thought out design by the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case convicts to “frustrate mandate of law” by getting their execution delayed.
Justice Suresh Kait, after hearing arguments from both the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) and those on behalf of the convicts, reserved his order.
Appearing for the Centre, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, Additional Solicitor Generals Maninder Acharya and KM Natraj with advocate Amit Mahajan told the court that the convicts whose mercy pleas have been rejected by the President can be hanged and all of them need not to be hanged together.
Mehta said that the convicts, in a deliberated calculated action, have led to the delay in execution. He said their appeals and mercy pleas have been rejected showing prompt action by the judiciary and the executive. He said that the act was so “ghastly, heinous and abhorrent”, that all the three courts concluded that the convicts deserve death penalty.
Countering Mehta’s arguments, advocate AP Singh — who is representing Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta in the case — said that the convicts are being implicated because they are Dalits and come from a poor background
To this the court asked, “How are Gupta and Sharma Dalits?”
Singh said both Ram Singh (the fifth convict who allegedly killed himself in Tihar jail) and Mukesh Singh are Dalits. “Justice hurried is justice buried,” he said.
Senior advocate Rebecca John and advocate Vrinda Grover, who represented convict Mukesh Singh, said, “Even death row convicts, who are guilty of heinous crimes, have rights under the Indian Constitution. The Centre has woken up yesterday and they are questioning me (the convicts) for the delay. In the last so many years, the Delhi government had not moved the court seeking issuance of death warrant.”
During the hearing, John also said that with change in circumstances, Mukesh, her client, can file a second mercy petition and cited earlier judgments of the Supreme Court. On January 7, a city court had fixed January 22 as the date for hanging the four convicts for raping a 23-year-old woman on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in south Delhi. She died of injuries a fortnight later. The execution date was later changed to February 1. On January 31, Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana postponed the execution of the death warrant till further orders after Vinay Sharma moved court stating that his mercy plea is pending before the President.