Nirbhaya: Plea that Mukesh was ill-treated in prison cannot be ground for mercy, Centre tells SC

New Delhi, Jan 28: The Supreme Court will on Wednesday pronounce its judgement on Nirbhaya case convict Mukesh Singh's plea challenging the rejection of his mercy petition by President Ram Nath Kovind on January 17.

Appearing for Singh, senior advocate Anjana Prakash referred to judgements on death sentence and the power of the president to grant mercy.

Reading out the statement Prakash said, "You have to apply your mind at each and every step. You are playing with somebody's life (on powers conferred to the President with regard to mercy plea). I (Mukesh) was beaten mercilessly after coming to jail."

Prakash asserts that no opinion was given. Also submits that the prisoner was sexually abused in jail.

Prakash has told the apex court that Mukesh, his brother Ram Singh were sexually abused in Tihar Jail. Ram Singh didn't commit suicide inside the prison but was murdered.

Through senior lawyer Anjana Prakash, Mukesh levels serious accusations against Tihar Jail authorities. He claims he was forced to have sex with Akshay, another accused in the Nirbhaya case. Mukesh has also claimed he was put in solitary confinement.

The Solicitor General said that the allegations that he was sexually abused, ill-treated in jail, cannot be ground for mercy.

SG Tushar Mehta intervenes and objects to this submission and said that plea that Mukesh was ill-treated in prison cannot be ground for mercy to one who has committed a heinous crime.

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 four convicted men are Mukesh (29), Pawan (22), Vinay Sharma (23) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31).

A fifth accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail in March in 2013 and the sixth, a convicted juvenile was sentenced three years of punishment in a reform home, and released in 2015.

The six men had assaulted Jyoti Pandey, the 23-year-old paramedic student, and a male friend in a moving bus as it drove through the streets of New Delhi. She was thrown out of the bus -so grievously injured that her insides were spilling out - along with her male friend near the airport. A fortnight later, on December 29, 2012, she succumbed in a Singapore hospital.