Lost faith in judiciary: Gangrape-murder victim’s kin as SC frees accused

The family of a 19-year-old girl who was killed after being tortured and raped in 2012 has condemned the Supreme Court’s acquittal of the three men who were sentenced to death for the crime.

The girl who worked with a private company in Gurugram’s Cyber City, was kidnapped while she was returning home from work on February 9, 2012. Her burnt body riddled with multiple injuries was found a few days later in a field at Rodhai village in Haryana’s Rewari district.

Post-mortem reports said she was tortured with glass bottles, sharp metal objects and car tools before being killed. Investigation also revealed that acid was poured into her eyes.

The incident happened just a few days before the gangrape of a paramedic in a moving bus in Delhi, the convicts of which were hanged in March 2020.

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On February 19, 2014, a city court sentenced the three accused, Rahul, Ravi and Vinod, to death and the same was upheld by the Delhi High Court on August 26 the same year.

Calling the accused “predators hunting for prey,” the court had observed that letting them go would be a “crime against society.”

However, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice UU Lalit on Monday (November 7) overturned the lower court’s verdict, acquitting the three accused, to the sheer shock of the victim’s family who were present during the hearing.

‘We were met with injustice because we are poor’

“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,” the woman’s father told Hindustan Times.

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The family has called the judgement a “failure of judiciary.”

“We got this injustice because we are poor and not politicians or ministers. What we expected for the accused, the judiciary gave it to us,” the victim’s father, a resident of Uttarakhand who works as a security guard, said.

The parents of the girl, however, have said that they will continue their legal fight.

Why the Supreme Court freed the accused?

The Supreme Court while acquitting the trio on Monday, said there were “glaring lapses” in the case and that the prosecution could not establish the identity of the accused and failed to prove the charges against them “beyond reasonable doubt.”

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Taking a swipe at the lower court, the apex court said the former only acted as a “passive umpire” while convicting the three 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,” the CJI-led bench said.

The top court also noted that 10 of the 49 witnesses in the case were not cross examined during the trial.

The top court’s verdict came while hearing a petition of the three accused requesting a reduced sentence.