Asha Devi, the mother of 2012 Delhi gang-rape victim Nirbhaya, on Friday blamed the convicts' lawyer AP Singh for trying to delay the justice by misguiding the court .
"Convict's lawyer now does not have anything... he is misguiding the court to delay the justice. It's not Vinay Singh, it is him (Singh) who needs rest. Vinay is absolutely fine... he is mentally stable," she said referring to Singh's argument about the convict's mental health condition.
Singh is representing convicts Vinay Sharma and Akshay Kumar. Previously, he had also represented convict Pawan Gupta.
Earlier in January, Devi told the media that Singh had told her the convicts would not be executed.
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"AP Singh (convicts' lawyer) has challenged me saying that the convicts will never be executed. I will continue my fight. The government will have to execute the convicts," Devi said.
In the latest development, one of the four death-row convicts, Vinay Sharma, injured himself by banging his head against a wall of his cell in Tihar Jail, as per officials.
Vinay's lawyer Singh had told the court that the convict was assaulted in jail and has head injuries, adding that he was suffering from acute mental illness and hence the death sentence cannot be carried out. He added that Vinay had been on hunger strike as well.
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The court rejected the ground of "mental illness", saying that the issues was raised before the apex court and it rejected the plea on the basis of the report submitted by the doctors, who said the convict was "psychologically well adjusted" and the "general condition of the petitioner is stable".
The jail incident happened after a Delhi court on Monday ordered that Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31) -- the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case be hanged on at 6 am on March 3.
Death warrants were earlier issued on January 7 and the execution was later deferred twice -- on January 17 and January 31.
Delhi High Court on February 5 granted a week's time to the four convicts to avail of all legal remedies available to them and said that the convicts cannot be hanged separately since they were convicted for the same crime.
(With agency inputs)
