Dramatic scenes in court at final hearing of Delhi gang-rape case

The hearing, which was conducted in two parts, witnessed heated exchanges between the lawyers even as the victim’s parents waited with bated breath for the court to announce its judgement.

Dramatic scenes were witnessed both inside and outside a Delhi court as it issued a death warrant against the four men convicted of gang raping and killing a 23-year-old paramedic student on December 16, 2012 inside a moving bus in south Delhi.

Jitendra Kumar Jha, the lawyer of parents of the 23-year-old physiotherapy student who was gang-raped on a cold December night in 2012, addresses the media after a court issued a black warrant to execute the four men who raped and tortured her, outside Patiala House Court, in New Delhi, on Monday, January 7, 2019. (Biplov Bhuyan/HT PHOTO)

As proceedings began, Vrinda Grover, the amicus curiae in the case, told the court that she has filed the status report detailing the documents required for filing the curative petition in the Supreme Court. After this, she told the court that she had met Vinay and Mukesh, two of the convicts, in jail and that she would now represent them.

Meanwhile, ML Sharma, who had represented Mukesh in the trial, came to court along with Mukesh’s mother. He told the court, presided by additional sessions judge Satish Kumar Arora, that he would represent Mukesh in the court for which he has also filed the necessary documents.

The court then expressed its displeasure and said that this is a never ending process where the counsels keep changing.

“How long would you take? This is an endless process. The remedies are to be availed within a reasonable time period. It cannot be delayed,” the judge remarked.

As the court reserved its order, Mukesh’s mother looked on without a clue as the proceedings went on, and left as soon as the first half of the hearing concluded. When media persons tried to speak to her, she rushed, crying, without having uttered a single word.

The hearing, which was conducted in two parts, witnessed heated exchanges between the lawyers even as the victim’s parents waited with bated breath for the court to announce its judgement.

The second half of the hearing started after a gap of 45 minutes, by which time the crowd outside the video conferencing room as well as the court premises had swelled up to witness the announcement. When the proceedings had started, all four convicts were produced via video conferencing from Tihar jail.

The images of the three convicts were visible on the screen before media persons were asked to leave the court room. Seated calmly in the centre, Mukesh told the court that he would be represented by advocate Vrinda Grover and not by advocate ML Sharma. However, even before he could conclude, Akshay Singh, another convict, who was seated next to Mukesh, started showing the court a newspaper clip of a Hindi daily.

Detailing the contents of the news report, he said all allegations against him are wrong and the media is writing false information. The story in question had reportedly quoted the director general (prisons) stating that the four had been kept in different jails as they may try to use delay tactics leading to some unfortunate incident.

Later, advocate Jitender Jha, representing the victim’s mother, said the court did not pay much heed to the submissions. Jha, who was present in the court when the proceedings were on, said his client was becoming restless and at several instances tried to speak in the court.

“Many times when she felt that the court might adjourn the matter, she would come in between and try to speak up. She said that the convicts have been given ample number of opportunities and that the convicts’ rights are being considered but not hers,” Jha said.

Everyone, including relatives, other lawyers and media persons, waited outside the court as the video conferencing and adjacent proceedings continued for over an hour. As soon as the order came, the victim’s came out of the court flashing a victory sign.

She had to be escorted out by police personnel after everyone ran to get a reaction from her and catch a glimpse of her after the order. One could easily see the relief on her face as she walked out of the court building.