Nirbhaya case: Convict Mukesh's lawyer confident of acquittal

New Delhi : With the Supreme Court set to deliver the much-awaited verdict in the December 16 Nirbhaya gang rape case, advocate M.L. Sharma, who is representing the accused convict Mukesh, has expressed confidence of his client's acquittal.

"We are expecting that Mukesh should be acquitted because there is no case against him. There is no evidence that he was even in the bus. We are waiting for the verdict which will come out at 2pm today," Sharma said.

The matter is being heard by the apex court bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra and consisting of Justices R. Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan.

The convicts - Akshay, Pawan, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh - challenged the Delhi High Court order which had sentenced them to the gallows.

Earlier, the trial court also had sentenced all the four convicts to death penalty.

It is being expected that the apex court would not grant relief to the accused as Justice Dipak Misra doesn't hesitate to give a death sentence and is exceedingly sensitive to women's rights and liberties.

He has upheld rape as depravity and not curable and recently, passed a woman friendly judgement saying that "no woman can be compelled to love; she always has right to say no".

In December, 2012, six people gang raped a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern in a moving bus. The woman succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital on December 29, 2012.

One of the accused, Ram Singh hanged himself in prison, while another person, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was convicted in August last year and will serve the maximum sentence of three years in a reform home.