New Delhi, February 20: Vinay Sharma, one of the rape convicts of the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, moved the Delhi court on Thursday seeking better treatment for his mental illness. Earlier in the day, officials of the Tihar jail had informed that Sharma had attempted to hurt himself by banging his head against a wall in his cell, on February 16. The officials of the jail had said that Sharma had received minor injuries. According to a report by Hindustan Times, Sharma has asked the Court to grant him permission for better treatment for schizophrenia- the mental illness that he is suffering from and also the injury in the head that he sustained in Tihar jail earlier this week.

The HT report states that as per officials at the Tihar Jail, Vinay had also stopped eating for some time now. The development  comes 12 days before all four convicts in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case are scheduled to be hanged. The report quotes Sharma’s lawyer AP Singh saying that he has asked the High Court to order his immediate transfer to the Institute of Human Behaviour & Allied Sciences (IHBAS) hospital in Shahdara, Delhi for health management.

An application filed by Singh in the court urges the Court to refer the convict to IHBAS Hospital for high-level treatment of mental illness, insanity and schizophrenia. The application urges the court to provide him with better treatment in his serious head injury and fracture in his right arm.

Earlier, Sharma's lawyer had argued that his death sentence should not be carried out owing to his mental condition but the court had dismissed the plea. The four convicts who will be hanged on March 3 include Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31) in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 20, 2020 04:38 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).