Delhi court dismisses Vinay Sharma’s plea seeking treatment for ‘mental illness’ at IHBAS

A Delhi court on Saturday dismissed December 16 Delhi gang rape convict Vinay Sharma’s plea seeking treatment at Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) for ‘mental illness.’

Vinay Sharma’s counsel, AP Singh, had told the court earlier this week that his client suffers from mental illness, schizophrenia and has failed to recognise his counsel and family. Therefore, Sharma had sought directions to authorities to provide him high-level medical treatment to him for his injuries. According to the plea, his counsel found that Sharma had grievous head injury, fracture in his right arm with plaster, and was suffering from insanity.

Tihar Jail authorities, however, earlier in the day told a local court that the death row convict’s injuries are self-inflicted and he is not suffering from any mental health issues.

Refuting claims by Sharma’s claims, public prosecutor Irfan Ahmad, who is representing the jail, said the petition was a “bundle of distorted facts.” The death row convict himself struck his head on the wall and it was a self-inflicted injury, which can been seen in the CCTV footage submitted by jail authorities, Ahmad said.

On Sharma’s plea seeking treatment at the Institute of Human Behaviour & Allied Sciences (IHBAS), Ahmad earlier said all the convicts are regularly examined by the jail doctors Sharma’s history reveal that he is not suffering from such disease as claimed by his lawyer AP Singh.“So his examination at any hospital is not required,” the public prosecutor said.

The court had on February 17 issued fresh death warrants for execution on March 3 at 6 am against the four death row convicts in the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case.

It had issued fresh warrants against the four death row convicts -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay (26) and Akshay Kumar (31).

Reacting to the court’s dismissal, the Delhi gang rape victim’s mother Asha Devi said that the convicts and their family should come to terms with the fact that there are no legal remedies left. “The courts have understood it and the convicts will be hanged on March 3 as scheduled,” she said.