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Govt may seek review after three Chhawla rape accused acquitted
Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said on Tuesday that he spoke to Union law minister Kiren Rijiju and assured justice for a 19-year-old rape victim who hailed from the state, a day after the Supreme Court acquitted three men sentenced to death for her 2012 gang rape and murder.
Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said on Tuesday that he spoke to Union law minister Kiren Rijiju and assured justice for a 19-year-old rape victim who hailed from the state, a day after the Supreme Court acquitted three men sentenced to death for her 2012 gang rape and murder.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Dhami said the victim was the daughter of the state and country, and that he will do everything to ensure she got justice.
“I have spoken to advocate Charu Khanna, who is handling the case and union law minister Kiren Rijiju regarding the Supreme Court’s decision of acquitting the three accused in 2012 Chhawla rape case. The victim is the daughter of our country and we will do everything to ensure that she gets justice,” Dhami told ANI.
On Monday, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Uday Umesh Lalit acquitted the three accused, citing glaring lapses in the investigation and trial of the case. “Having regard to the totality of circumstances and the evidence on record, it is difficult to hold that the prosecution had proved the guilt of the accused by adducing cogent and clinching evidence,” the CJI observed.
On February 9, 2012, the woman, who hailed from Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal district and worked with a private company in Gurugram’s Cyber City, had got off a bus at Qutub Vihar, a mere 10-walk away from her house at Chhawla Camp, and was walking home with two friends, when she was waylaid and abducted by the occupants of a red Tata Indica car.
Days later, the woman’s body was found in a field at Rodhai village in Haryana’s Rewari district, with multiple injuries and burn marks. An autopsy revealed she was attacked with car tools, glass bottles and sharp metal objects.
Three alleged accused — Rahul, Ravi and Vinod — were convicted and the awarded the death sentence by a city court on February 19, 2014. The judgment of the trial court was upheld by the Delhi high court on August 26 the same year, noting the brutal manner in which the body was mutilated before and after the woman was kidnapped and raped, referring to the accused as “trained blood hounds picking out a scent”.
The unexpected acquittal stoked politics.
Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Harish Rawat tweeted, “Like Nirbhaya rape and murder case, it was a gruesome murder case. On the part of medical reports, all evidence, where did the government lapse that those should have been hanged were acquitted by the Supreme Court. We can’t believe it. Well, it’s an apex court order.”
The woman’s family on Monday expressed shock over the verdict. “For more than 10 years, we fought in the courts, hoping that our daughter will get justice. But after the Supreme Court’s decision to acquit all three accused, we have lost our faith in the judiciary… We have also lost the will to live,” said the woman’s father.
