2012 gangrape convict now says he was not in Delhi on day of crime, seeks stay on execution

Three days before they are scheduled to be hanged, one of the convicts in the 2012 gangrape case has filed a petition in a Delhi court claiming he was not in the national capital on the day of the crime.

The petition has been moved by convict Mukesh Singh’s lawyer ML Sharma seeking a stay on the execution scheduled for 5.30 am on March 20.

The court reserved its order on the petition. It is expected to pronounce the verdict later.

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This comes a day after three of the four convicts approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) seeking a stay on the execution of their death sentence. The application before the ICJ has been filed by Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma.

The apex court had on Monday rejected the plea of Mukesh Singh, seeking restoration of all his legal remedies alleging that his earlier lawyers misled him.

The plea, filed through advocate ML Sharma, sought a 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.

On March 5, a trial court issued fresh warrants - the fourth in the case - for March 20.

These men were convicted for gang-raping and savagely assaulting a 23-year-old woman paramedic student in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012. She succumbed to injuries on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore where she was taken for better medical treatment.

While one of the accused, Ram Singh had committed suicide in jail, a juvenile accused was released from a remand home after completion of his term.