The Supreme Court on Monday acquitted three men sentenced to death by the High Court on the accusation of rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman in Delhi in 2012 stating that the lack of evidence and glaring lapses in the trial leaves the court with no other alternative.
Chhawla Case
A brutal incident happened ten years ago when a 19-year-old woman was abducted and gang raped. The accused didn’t stop just there, he beat her with the car tools. The woman’s body part had cigarette burns and acid was poured into her body.
However, on Monday, the case verdict took a complete U-turn in the Supreme court, when the Court acquitted all three convicts who were given the death penalty by the lower court.
Why did Supreme Court Acquit the Accused?
Courts should strictly decide cases on merits in accordance with law. Courts should not be influenced by any kind of outside moral pressures or otherwise
A Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice UU Lalit stated that it was the prosecution’s failure to prove the charges against Ravi Kumar, Rahul and Vinod, the three accused. The bench said that the High court acted as a “passive umpire” while convicting them.
Another fault was the establishment of the identity of the accused and it was a “glaring lapse”
10 out of 49 witnesses were not cross-examined during the trial.
The Supreme Court pointed out that Court should give verdicts on the basis of evidence and not on the basis of moral pressure and society.
Besides Justice UU Lalit, the other two judges on the bench were Justice Ravindra Bhat and Justice Bela M Trivedi
It must be noted that a similar incident happened in Delhi as well, known as the “Nirbhaya case” where five men raped and brutally killed a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern on a moving bus.
This resulted in nationwide protests, outrage and a few vital changes to the laws on sexual crimes.
It must be noted that the Delhi Police had opposed to Supreme Court over reducing the death sentence. They also said that the crime was committed not only against the victim but also against society.
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Victim’s family: “broken” but will continue the fight
My only hope to live was to fight for justice for my daughter but today I am defeated
Maheshwari Negi, the mother of the victim Kiran Negi broke down after hearing the decision. “We have not just lost the battle but also the will to live,” she said.
The parents were disappointed by the Court’s decision and said that they had lost all their hopes of justice in this country.“I did not sleep in peace for the last ten years, her face always came in front of my eyes, whenever I woke up at night. My only hope to live was to fight for justice for my daughter but today I am defeated,” said Maheshwari Negi.
Kiran’s father does the job of the watchman. He said he was happy when he went to work thinking that his daughter would get justice but the verdict has broken them down completely.
The family protested outside the court after the verdict came out. Maheshwari Negi said that if Kiran would be seeing this she must be thinking about why she was born in this country.
She further stated that now she was concerned about the safety of her family and kids as from the released accused.
Yogita Bhayana, the founder of the PARI, an NGO working for Gender Justice, said she had been with the family since day one and she would continue to fight for justice “ We will challenge this decision” she quoted.
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