In the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain the plea of Mukesh Singh, one of the four death-row convicts, seeking restoration of legal remedies alleging that his earlier counsel misled and forced him to sign the papers.
Meanwhile, as the day of hanging of the four death-row convicts nears, three of them on Monday moved the International Court of Justice seeking a stay on their “unlawful execution”, alleging the probe leading to their conviction was “flawed” and they have been treated as “guinea pigs”.
A Bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and MR Shah heard submissions of lawyer ML Sharma, appearing for Mukesh, and rejected the plea by terming it as “not maintainable” in view of the fact that both the review and the curative pleas in the case have been dismissed.
The apex court had on July 9, 2018 dismissed the review plea of Mukesh against its judgment; later, his curative and mercy pleas were rejected by the top court and President Ram Nath Kovind respectively.
On March 5, a trial court issued fresh warrants with March 20, 5.30 am, as the date for the execution of the convicts — Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31).