One Of The Delhi Bus Rapists Says He's Repeatedly Sexually Abused In Jail

A man set to be executed this weekend appealed for mercy from the Indian president for a second time. This time, he argued that he be granted mercy because he suffered from sexual abuse while in jail.

Mukesh Singh is one of the four men who will be hanged this Saturday, February 1, for the 2012 Delhi fatal gang rape of a female student on board a moving bus, Daily Mail reported. Singh’s lawyers are trying to make a second appeal to the president before the hanging happens after their first appeal was rejected.

According to Singh’s lawyers, President Ram Nath Kovind’s rejection of their first mercy plea was made in bad faith and “arbitrary” since he was not aware of all the facts surrounding the case at that time. The president hasn’t been informed that Singh was “repeatedly sexually abused” while in jail and was even placed in solitary confinement argued Attorney Anjana Prakash, one of Singh’s lawyers.

“You are playing with somebody's life,” Prakash told the court. “You have to apply your mind.”

However, Mukesh Singh’s petition has been rejected by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, according to HindustanTimes. Justice R. Ranumathi who lead the three-judge bench ruled that the argument about President not receiving all relevant records from the government did not hold water.

In addition, the bench did not give weight to Singh’s argument of suffering from abuse and humiliation while in prison. “Suffering in the prison cannot be ground for challenging mercy powers exercised by the President,” the bench, which also includes justices Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna, ruled.

Singh’s team also argued about the slow speed in processing their previous mercy petition. However, the bench noted that the government completed all the procedures required in just four days, which was already a record time for handling a mercy petition.

Singh, along with fellow convicted rapists Pawan Gupta, Akshay Kumar, and Vinay Sharma, was originally scheduled to be hanged on January 22. However, Singh applied for mercy to the President in an attempt to escape the hanging.

However, his first appeal for mercy was rejected two weeks ago. Since Indian law requires that death row convicts must be informed of their execution date 14 days ahead of time, the execution date was moved to February 1, which will likely push through since Singh’s second appeal was already rejected.