Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has approved the filing of a review petition in the Supreme Court against the acquittal of the three accused in the Chhawla rape and murder case.
This has come days after the parents of the 2012 Chhawla gangrape victim met Delhi LG VK Saxena and requested him to file a review petition against the acquittal of all three accused.
LG Saxena has also approved the engagement of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional SG Aishwariya Bhati to represent the Government in the case before the top court.
The acquittal on Nov 8
The Supreme Court acquitted three men sentenced to death for the gangrape and murder of a 19-year-old woman in Delhi's Chhawla area in 2012, noting the prosecution failed to provide leading, cogent, clinching and clear evidence, including those related to DNA profiling and call detail records (CDRs), against the accused.
A bench of Chief Justice U U Lalit and Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi acquitted the convicts in a 40-page order.
"The evidence with regard to the arrest of the accused, their identification, discoveries and recoveries of the incriminating articles, identity of the car, the seizures and sealing of the articles and collection of samples, the medical and scientific evidence, the report of DNA profiling, the evidence with regard to the CDRs etc. were not proved by the prosecution by leading, cogent, clinching and clear evidence much less unerringly pointing the guilt of the accused," the bench said.
"The prosecution has to bring home the charges levelled against them beyond reasonable doubt, which the prosecution has failed to do in the instant case, resultantly, the court is left with no alternative but to acquit the accused, though involved in a very heinous crime," it said.
It may be true that if the accused involved in the heinous crime go unpunished or are acquitted, a kind of agony and frustration may be caused to the society in general and to the family of the victim in particular, however the law does not permit the courts to punish the accused on the basis of moral conviction or on suspicion alone, the bench said.
First sentencing in Feb 2014
Three convicts were awarded death penalty by a Delhi court in February 2014, after being held guilty of raping and killing a 19-year-old woman in 2012. The victim's mutilated body was found in a field in Delhi's Chhawala area with multiple injuries due to assault with objects ranging from car tools to earthen pots.
Delhi HC confirms capital punishment in Aug 2014
The capital punishment was confirmed by the Delhi High Court on August 26, 2014, saying they were "predators" moving on the streets and "were looking for prey". The three men, Ravi Kumar, Rahul and Vinod were convicted under various charges dealing with kidnapping, rape and murder. As per the police one of the accused allegedly took revenge after the woman turned down his proposal. The woman hailed from Uttarakhand.
A division bench of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Mukta Gupta upheld the trial court’s February order sentencing the trio to death for abducting, raping and killing a 19-year-old girl, whose mutilated and decomposed body was found in Haryana in 2012.
The bench held that after raping the girl, the convicts battered her to death and they then “defiled her body”.
“It was as if the three saw a lonely woman on street and the evil in them overtook the good in them. It is not that they acted upon a sudden impulse. They were predators moving on streets and were looking for a prey. The three snatched Anamica (name changed) from the society,” said the bench in its 97-page judgment.
“Their hunter’s mind was hard and unyielding. The predominant idea of finding a victim to rape and then kill her had taken such complete possession of their mind that there was no room for any emotion. Satisfying their lust and executing their design to kill helpless Anamica, the record which they left upon her dead body was a sign: this is not a common rape followed by murder,” it said.
The culprits
The girl was kidnapped by Rahul (27), Ravi (23) and Vinod (23) in a car near her house in Qutub Vihar, Delhi on the night of Feb 9, 2012, when she with three colleagues was returning from her Gurgaon office.
Her mutilated body was found three days later from a field in Rewari. There were multiple injuries on the body and she had been assaulted with objects ranging from car tools to earthen pots. Police said Ravi led in committing the crime as the woman had spurned his proposal for a relationship.
Parents of teenage girl sought police protection
After the release of two of the three accused from Rohini Jail, the parents of the deceased teenage girl have sought police protection, out of fear.
