The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to transfer outside the national capital the trial in the December 16 gangrape and murder case.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir rejected the pela said to have been filed by Mukesh, one of the six accused in the case, which had said that a free and fair trial in the case was not possible in Delhi due to the extreme public sentiment and large-scale protests here against the accused.
The bench passed the order after going through the report filed by the sessions court in which it was said that advocate M.L. Sharma, who appeared before it on the transfer plea issue, had been given no authority by the accused to argue on his behalf. “Your authority to appear in this matter has been totally denied by the accused,” the bench said after going through the report. Sharma then pleaded that he should be heard as an independent person in the case.
The bench, however, refused to allow him to argue in the case, saying, “We are unable to accept Sharma’s submissions in the facts and circumstances of the case.”
The controversy in the case arose after two advocates — M L Sharma and V. K. Anand — appeared before the apex court claiming to represent Mukesh during the hearing of the transfer petition. The bench had then asked the sessions court holding the trial in the case to clarify from Mukesh who was his authorised counsel and whether he wanted to pursue the case for transfer of trial to a place outside Delhi. The sessions court, after talking to the accused, filed a report in a sealed cover before the bench.
Mukesh is among the accused in the gangrape-cum-murder case of a 23-year-old paramedical student. She was gangraped and brutally assaulted by six persons in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16 last year and then dumped on the road along with her male friend who was also ohysically assaulted.
She died in a Singapore hospital on December 29.