NIRBHAYA: MENTAL TRAUMA CITED TO ESCAPE GALLOWS
The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order for Friday at 2pm on a surprise claim by the lawyer of Vinay Kumar Sharma (26), one of the four convicts on death row in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, that his client had developed “mental illness” due to trauma in jail to escape the gallows.
In a related development, a city court adjourned hearing for fresh death warrant till Monday as Additional Sessions judge Dharmender Rana of Patiala House courts in Delhi said he would hear applications of the Tihar Jail superintendent and victim’s mother to fix date for hanging only after the Supreme Court disposes of Vinay’s plea on Friday.
He refused to entertain pleas to pass order for hanging 14 days after Friday to meet the legal requirement of a convict gets that much time after rejection of his curative petition. He adjourned the hearing noting “there will be a plethora of options available to convicts if Vinay’s petition is allowed.”
The SC bench of Justices Mrs R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna heard arguments for nearly two hours on behalf of Vinay by Advocate A P Singh as also the Centre and Delhi Government seeking to overrule Delhi High Court’s rejection of separate hangings.
Singh rushed to the trial court to tell it about the SC reserving its order after pleading before the top court for converting death sentence of Vinay into life imprisonment in view of his mental status, pointing out that a psychiatrist in the jail was regularly examining him and giving him drugs for the purpose and the jail authorities have even sent him to a mental hospital because of the ailment he developed due to alleged “torture and illtreatment” in the jail. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta placed before the court a medical report of Feb 12 to assert Vinay was “medically fit.” The Bench perused the record to reject Singh’s claim that Delhi Lt Governor and home minister had not signed the recommendation to the President for rejecting his mercy plea.
The lawyers following the case in the Supreme Court wondered whether Vinay will escape the gallows as happened with Devender Pal Singh Bhullar who became mentally ill after the death sentence in the 1993 bomb attack in Delhi on the car of then Youth Congress President MS Bitta. Eight years of delay in disposal of his mercy petition and his mental health prompted the apex court to reduce his sentence to life imprisonment.
Taking note of the fact that the Supreme Court is to pronounce judgment on convict Vinay’s petition against rejection of mercy petition on Friday, Judge Rana said he would also like to give time to another convict Pawan Gupta for an effective legal representation, regretting that he had rejected all lawyers whose names were given to him by Delhi Legal Services Authority. Pawan’s father pleaded that he needs at least two days to find a “private” lawyer since after advocate Singh withdrawing from his case.
Meanwhile, a Delhi court on Thursday appointed advocate Ravi Qazi to represent one of the death-row convicts, Pawan Gupta, in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case after his erstwhile lawyer denied him legal aid.