Earlier this week, the Supreme Court dismissed Vinay’s plea challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by the President of India.
Vinay Sharma, one of the four convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape case lodged in Tihar Jail, injured himself after banging his head against the wall of his cell on Monday. He sustained minor injuries on his head and hand, and was treated by the jail authorities, Tihar DG Sandeep Goel confirmed.
The four convicts — Pawan Gupta (25), Mukesh Singh (32), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) — are scheduled to be hanged on March 3 at 6 am. The date was deferred twice earlier due to the convicts’ remaining legal remedies. Currently, Pawan is yet to file curative and mercy petitions. Akshay, too, has expressed an intent to file a fresh mercy petition.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court dismissed Vinay’s plea challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by the President of India.
AP Singh, who appeared for convicts Akshay and Vinay, told the court, “Vinay is suffering from acute mental illness and, therefore, the death sentence cannot be carried out.” The court, however, did not find any merit in Vinay’s claim of mental illness, after it perused a medical report prepared by senior medical officer, Akesh Narade, on January 30, which certified that Vinay was “psychologically well adjusted”.
The court added that all the necessary documents, including Sharma’s medical report, was placed before the President who then “applied his mind” and rejected the mercy plea.
A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern 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.
Six people including the four convicts, Ram Singh and a juvenile — were named as accused. Ram Singh, the prime accused, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in Tihar jail days after the trial began. The juvenile was released in 2015 and sent to an undisclosed location amid concerns over a threat to his life. He, when released, was 20 years old.