Vinay Sharma, the 26-year-old ordered to be hanged todeath on February 1 along with three accomplices for Nirbhaya gang rape andmurder, rushed to a Delhi court on Friday to seek orders to Tihar jailauthorities to quickly hand over his 170-page personal diary. Sharma, in hisapplication, told the court that he wants to attach his personal diary to hispetition seeking mercy from President Ram Nath Kovind.
Onlyone of the four men convicted for the 2012 Delhi gang rape of a 23-year-old hasfiled a mercy petition so far.
Oneof the convicts of the Nirbhaya case, Mukesh Singh's petition for mercy wasrejected last week by President Kovind within a span of just four days. It wasthe fastest decision on a mercy petition ever. But Mukesh Singh's unsuccessfulattempt to get a presidential pardon necessitated a fresh death warrant andpushed the execution of the four convicts from January 22 to February 1.
LawyerAP Singh, who filed a request on behalf of Vinay Sharma, said that he was readywith the mercy petition. But at his interaction with the convict on January 22,Vinay Sharma "expressed a desire to attach his personal original diarycontaining 170 pages to the mercy petition".
APSingh said he had filed a request with the jail authorities but they were yetto comply.
Jail officials had earlier supplied Vinay Sharma's medical records, records of cellular confinement, the amount earned in prison through labour and records of educational and reformative activities such as the Tihar Olympics and painting.
Fouraccused — Pawan (25), Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Kumar (32) and Akshay KumarSingh (31) — were convicted and sentenced to death for the gang rape. One ofthe six people arrested in this case was tried as a juvenile and sent to acorrection home for three years before he was released. The sixth, Ram Singh,allegedly killed himself in Tihar.
