Nirbhaya Case: SC Pulls Up Mukesh's Lawyer For Irrelevant Arguments

A three judge special bench of the Supreme Court today began detailed hearing of the review petition filed by four death row convicts in the sensational 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.

The bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan reserved judgment pertaining to convict Mukesh's case  after his lawyer M L Sharma concluded arguments and Special Public Prosecutor Sidharth Luthra finished his counter.

The review plea of remaining three convicts Vinay, Akshay and Pawan will be heard on January 22.

During the hearing the CJI pulled up Sharma for repeating whatever he had argued earlier and not making a case for review. Sharma had questioned the DNA evidence, repeated that Mukesh only had a two-wheeler license and did not know how to drive a bus, also said the accused had made all self-incriminating statements due to torture. He had also said the victim's dying declaration was unreliable.

Rejecting the arguments the Chief Justice told Sharma: 'What are you arguing..Please make a case for review. Tell us how our conclusion is wrong.. prove our analysis of DNA and dying declaration was wrong, investigation was perverse etc. You are only repeating what you argued earlier and raising several new points which is not admissible at review stage".

SPP Luthra also told the bench that each argument of Sharma did not stand in a review stage.

The bench had confirmed on May 5 this year the death sentence awarded to Mukesh, Pawan,Vinay and Akshay by the trial court and Delhi High Court

 Sharma contended that the apex court had not considered many issues that he had raised during the trial and subsequent appeal. Sharma said Mukesh was falsely implicated and that he was not present at the crime scene at the time of the unfortunate incident on December 16, 2012.

The apex court had upheld the death penalty to the four convicts in the case saying that the “brutal, barbaric and diabolic nature” of the crime could create a “tsunami of shock” to destroy a civilised society. “The accused may not be hardened criminals, but the cruel manner in which the gang-rape was committed in the moving bus; iron rods were inserted in the private parts of the victim; and the coldness with which both the victims were thrown naked in cold wintery night of December, shocks the collective conscience of the society. The present case clearly comes within the category of ‘rarest of rare case’ where the question of any other punishment is ‘unquestionably foreclosed’. If at all there is a case warranting award of death sentence, it is the present case”, the bench had said.

SC had termed the incident as “Tsunami of shock” while describing the nature and gravity of offence committed by the convicts.

In a voluminous judgement (430 pages), the bench held the attitude of offenders as “beastial proclivity” and said “It sounds like a  story from a different world where humanity is treated with irreverence.”.

On a cold winter night of December 16, 2012, five adult men and a juvenile lured the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist and her male friend onto a bus in Delhi, where they repeatedly raped the woman and beat both with a metal bar before dumping them on a road. The woman, later dubbed Nirbhaya (meaning fearless), died two weeks later of her injuries. Four of the adults were sentenced to death while the fifth hanged himself in prison.

On August 31, 2013, the juvenile was convicted and sentenced to three years in a reformation home. He was released in December 2015.