Mukesh Singh one of the convicts of the Nirbhaya rape case has claimed that he was sexually assaulted in Tihar Jail. The convict's lawyer also made similar claim in the Supreme Court while the apex court was hearing the convict's plea. Mukesh Singh was brutally beaten when he first arrived in Tihar jail said his lawyer. Senior advocate Anjana Prakash said there were several procedural lapses with her client Mukesh Singh's mercy plea by President and said exercise of power by President falls under purview of court's judicial review right. A 3-judge bench headed by Justice R Banumathi also questioned how the convict can allege 'non application of mind by the President in rejecting his mercy petition. The Supreme Court has reserved verdict on plea till tomorrow.
The Centre has sought dismissal of the plea and said that being ill-treated in prison cannot be a ground for mercy to one who has committed such a henious crime. Last week, the top court rejected Pawan Kumar's petition, in which he claimed to be a juvenile at the time of committing the offence. Meanwhile, a dummy execution of the four death row convicts was performed at Tihar Jail on Monday. This was the third instance of the jail authorities performing the dummy execution in order to test the equipment which will be used to hang the convicts. Four men Vinay, Akshay, Pawan, and Mukesh have been convicted and sentenced to death for raping a 23-year old medical student in a moving bus in the national capital on December 16, 2012. They will be executed on February 1 at 6am.