The father of the 2012 Chhawla gangrape-and-murder victim on Monday welcomed the Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena's approval to the city government to file of a review petition in the Supreme Court against the acquittal of the three accused, and expressed hope they would be hanged to death.
He said the family was yet to come to terms with the November 7 apex court judgment acquitting them.
"If not they, who inflicted brutality on my daughter and murdered her? Isn't it the duty of the police and judicial system of the country to get us justice?" the victim's father told PTI after the LG gave the go-ahead to file the review petition. "I will fight till my last breath to get justice." The three were awarded the death sentence by a trial court which was upheld by the Delhi High Court for the gruesome rape-and-murder of the 19-year old woman on February 9, 2012 at Chhawla, Dwarka, Delhi.
They had appealed against the sentence at the Supreme Court that in its judgment on November 7 , 2022 set aside the trial court and High Court orders.
The LG has also approved engaging Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to represent the Delhi government in the case.
The father said, "I have rested all my hopes on the Solicitor General of India (SG) now. I am sure he will convince the Supreme Court and get all the three rapists and murderers hanged to death." Recalling how they were running from pillar to post after the apex court's decision, he said they had been making consistent efforts to get a senior lawyer engaged in the case.
They had met Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on November 20 and pleaded for the engagement of SG.
The family hails from Pauri Garhwal district in Uttarakhand.
"We had pleaded with the honourable CM to request the Centre to appoint SG Tushar Mehta to appear in our review petition. I am obliged that the government heard my plea," he said.
According to the prosecution, the woman worked in Gurugram's Cyber City. She was returning from her workplace and was near her home when the three men abducted her in a car.
When she didn't return home, her parents lodged a missing persons report, the prosecution said, adding the woman's mutilated and decomposing body was found in a village in Rewari, Haryana. The police found multiple injuries on the woman's body. Further investigation and autopsy revealed she was attacked with car tools, glass bottles, metal objects, and other weapons. She was also raped, they said.
Police arrested the three men involved in the crime and said one of the accused allegedly took revenge after the woman turned down his proposal.
Extending support to the parent's cause, an NGO, People Against Rape In India (PARI), held a candle march in Delhi on November 20 and demanded justice in the case. Activist Yogita Bhayana, who was also one of the applicants before the Supreme Court in the case in favour of the victim's parents, led the march with students and volunteers.
"Our society should hang its head in shame that a young woman in the national capital of the country was raped and murdered in a diabolic manner and our justice system says no one did it. All of us should demand justice for the girl's family to save the future of our daughters," Bhayana said.
