'Was I Sentenced To Be Raped?' Nirbhaya Convict Claims He Was Sexually Abused In Tihar Jail

Centre on Tuesday sought dismissal of the plea of one of the four death row convicts against rejection of his mercy plea and said that being ill-treated in prison cannot be a ground for mercy to one who has committed such a heinous crime.

The bench later reserved its verdict to be pronounced on Wednesday. (Image: PTI)

New Delhi: Mukesh Singh, one of the four men convicted for the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case, told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that he has been sexually abused inside the Tihar jail. According to reports, the counsel for Mukesh told this to the Supreme Court during the hearing of Singh's plea seeking judicial review of the rejection of his mercy plea by the President. Speaking before a three-judge bench led by Justice R Banumathi, Prakash also challenged the rejection of his request for a presidential pardon earlier this month. The bench later reserved its verdict to be pronounced on Wednesday. "I was sexually abused in Tihar jail. I was forced to have sexual intercourse with co-accused 31-year-old Akshay. I was also severely beaten up many times," Mukesh's counsel told the top court.  "All these statements were given by me but these were not placed before the President," Prakash claimed in her submission before the court. Levelling serious accusations against the Tihar Jail authorities, Mukesh's lawyer added that his 32-year-old client was forced to have sex in front of other prisoners. Contending that his client has been sentenced to death, Anjana Prakash asked the court "but was he sentenced to be raped?" Prakash also contended before the court that several supervening circumstances, which included his illegal solitary confinement, were ignored when the mercy petition was rejected by the President. A Delhi sessions court on Monday dismissed the application challenging recent magisterial order that rejected the plea questioning the credibility of the sole witness in the Nirbhaya gangrape and fatal assault case, claiming he was tutored and his statement was not credible. Even the Centre on Tuesday sought dismissal of the plea of one of the four death row convicts against rejection of his mercy plea and said that being ill-treated in prison cannot be a ground for mercy to one who has committed such a heinous crime. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a three-judge bench headed by Justice R Banumathi that the convict, Mukesh Kumar Singh, was not kept in solitary confinement as alleged and no ground of commutation has been made out. Mehta also told the bench that the power of judicial review of the apex court is very limited in such cases and said the delay in deciding his mercy plea would have a dehumanising impact. President has to satisfy himself regarding pardon and not look into each procedure, Mehta told the bench adding that the President is not sitting in appeal against judgements of all courts in the case. The top court questioned Singh as to how he can allege "non application of mind" by the President in rejecting his mercy petition and claim that all facts were not placed before the President when he dealt with the mercy plea. "How can you say that these facts were not placed before his excellency the President? How can you say that there was non-application of mind by the President," the bench asked senior advocate Anjana Prakash. When the convict's counsel said that all facts were not placed before the President, Mehta told the bench that all the records, exhibits and the judgment in the case were placed before the President. The trial court has issued black warrants for the execution of all the four convicts -- Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Kumar -- at 6 am on February 1. The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as "Nirbhaya" (the fearless), was gang-raped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.' (With inputs from agencies)