From slow poisoning claims, to allegation of impeding mercy petition, convicts of Delhi gangrape case make bizarre claims; court refuses to intervene

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturday said no further directions were required on a plea by the lawyer of the death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case alleging the prison authorities were not handing over certain documents required to file mercy and curative petitions and disposed of the petition. Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Kumar Jain said the convicts’ lawyer can take pictures of the relevant documents, notebook and paintings or sketches from the Tihar jail authorities. The court noted that the jail authorities had already complied with the request made by the convicts by supplying the documents whatever was lying with them. The authorities had also brought several documents, around 10 paintings and sketches made by Vinay Kumar Sharma and his 19-page notebook titled ‘Darinda’ and other documents to the courtroom and told the judge that if directed, those can be supplied to the convicts. “In view thereof, no further directions for the supply of any documents required. However, the jail authorities are directed to hand over a copy of paintings and notebook titled ‘Darinda’ to the counsel for convicts today in the court itself against acknowledgement. “Application disposed of accordingly,” the judge said. [caption id=“attachment_3425280” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The public prosecutor, appearing for the Delhi Police, told the court that the Tihar jail authorities have supplied all the relevant documents sought by the lawyer of the death row convicts in the case. PTI[/caption] The hanging of all four convicts in the case is to take place on 1 February at 6 am, according to the court order. During the proceedings, the public prosecutor, appearing for the Tihar jail authorities, told the court that they had supplied all the relevant documents sought by the lawyer of the death row convicts in the case. He claimed that the convicts are only adopting “delaying tactics”. “The convicts are adopting delaying tactics by filing these applications. The entire process is to defeat the law. We have already supplied all the documents. We procured all the documents from all the jails where they went,” the counsel said. While producing the documents, notebook and paintings and sketches, he said, “These are all we have. If the court directs, we can hand these over to the convicts right now.” The prosecutor, however, said there was no such diary containing 170 pages. Advocate AP Singh, appearing for the convicts, alleged that Vinay was being slow poisoned and was hospitalised, but his medical reports were not being supplied to him. He further said though he had received some documents Friday night from the jail authorities, Vinay’s personal diary and medical documents have not been supplied. “They (Tihar jail authorities) say there is no such record. Vinay was being slow poisoned. That’s why he was sent to the hospital. Vinay made several paintings and we want to inform the President about it. Also, what he earned from those paintings needs to be informed,” Singh said. He also alleged that another convict Pawan Singh’s head was “split-open” in Mandoli jail here and he was shifted to a hospital, but those documents were not supplied to the counsel too. The documents related to the third convict Akshay Kumar Singh’s health were also not supplied and were required to file his curative and mercy petitions, the lawyer said. Singh had moved an application alleging that the jail authorities were yet to give the documents which are required to file the mercy petition for Vinay (26) and curative petitions for Akshay (31) and Pawan (25). The Supreme Court recently dismissed the curative petitions of other two convicts: Vinay and Mukesh Singh (32). Mukesh’s mercy petition was rejected by the President earlier this month. The 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of 16 to 17 December 2012, in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people before she was thrown out on the road. She was flown to a hospital in Singapore where she died.