The accused have rights, not us: December 16 gang-rape victim’s mother

Within minutes of a city court postponing the date of hanging the four men convicted for the December 16 gang-rape case, Asha Devi, the mother of the 23-year-old

Within minutes of a city court postponing the date of hanging the four men convicted for the December 16 gang-rape case, Asha Devi, the mother of the 23-year-old paramedic student who was assaulted, said that the present circumstances have led her to believe that only accused persons have rights.

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“They have committed the crime, yet they have rights; but despite being brutally tortured, we have no rights,” she said outside the court.

Devi said the defence counsel AP Singh also boasted that the four men would not be hanged at any cost, an allegation denied by the counsel.

Singh said that this was a wrong statement, made to defame him. “ It is a wrong statement made by her (Asha Devi). She wants to defame the defence counsel, especially me, because I have been fighting this case since 2012 up to the President House and will continue fighting. She wants me to be removed,” Singh said.

The war of words broke out after the court, on Friday, postponed the hanging of the four convicts in the December 16 gang-rape case after one the convicts, Vinay Sharma, had moved to the court seeking a stay on the hanging that had been scheduled for February 1.

“I have been waiting since 10am for an effective order. We waited with hope in our heart that the convict would face the gallows and we would get justice,” she said.

The woman said that the convicts are using loopholes in the law to avoid the gallows. “They can do it. They are men of this country. They have the right to live. Only my daughter had no right,” she said.