- Friday, March 07, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
It was not too long ago that India was outraged over the release of 11 men convicted of gang-raping an expecting Muslim woman and murdering her family members during the 2002 riots in the western state of Gujarat. Even the government of the country’s popular prime minister Narendra Modi, who has stressed on respecting women, came under criticism for reportedly okaying the culprits’ premature release.
On Monday (7), the country was left shocked once again as its Supreme Court set three men, who were given death penalty by a trial court in 2014 for brutally raping and murdering a teenage Dalit woman in 2012, free saying there was no “cogent, clinching and clear evidence” that they had committed the heinous crime.
The voice of the poor was buried again
In Delhi Chhawla gang rape case, Supreme Court has acquitted Kiran Negi's murderer by changing the death sentence
The way after the gangrape, acid was poured into his eyes and ears,he broke his eyes with a screwdriver.Video: @yogitabhayana pic.twitter.com/eq7ctcV6Bo
— Ahmed Khabeer احمد خبیر (@AhmedKhabeer_) November 7, 2022
The Delhi High Court had confirmed the sentences that were given by the trial court.
A three-judge bench of the apex court raised serious doubts over the police investigation, and slammed the sessions court for “glaring lapses” in the trial and said the judge had acted like a “passive umpire”, the BBC reported.
However, the decision left many, including the woman’s family, shell-shocked. Activists and lawyers expressed their shock over social media with some even comparing the top court’s decision with the recent incident of releasing rape and murder convicts in Gujarat.
In a video that came out after the Supreme Court’s order, the victim’s weeping mother said they lost the battle and felt she had no reason to live.
“I thought my daughter would get justice,” she was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. She added that the family felt cheated and wronged.
“I was hoping the accused would be hanged. I couldn’t imagine they would roam free one day. My daughter was raped, they poured acid on her and mutilated her. I can’t even describe what happened… I want justice. I won’t stop fighting,” she added.
The father, who is a security guard, said it all happened because they are poor and don’t have money.
“We are poor and that’s why we are suffering. The courts don’t care. We have been betrayed. I have not been able to work since the incident. I remember going with the police to see my daughter’s body. I couldn’t sleep for days. How can they be released?” he told the Express.
