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CRIMES
ELECTION 2018

tions about her conduct in the investigation. Under Penal Code after their arrest on November 29.
the IPC terminology, the word female is used in place This is how the Nirbhaya gang rape case proceed-
of a girl child even under 16 years of age. There is also ed. Nirbhaya boarded the bus in which she was gang
a provision to provide first aid to the victim of rape raped and brutalised on the fateful night of December
immediately and for free. The hospital has the respon- 16, 2012. Six persons were involved in the gang rape
sibility of immediately informing the police. and also inflicted fatal injuries to the victim’s internal
organs. They were arrested from different locations
WILL SHE GET JUSTICE? over the next six days.
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has
ordered setting up of a fast track court for the expedi- n January 2013, then Chief Justice of India started
tious trial in the case of rape and murder of a woman a fast-track court for a speedy trial. The police filed
veterinarian near Hyderabad. I a charge sheet in the Nirbhaya gang rape case
However, there is a big question mark if the vic- on January 3, 2013, almost 18 days after the crime
tim will really get fast justice. Similar assurances had was committed. The fast-track court began hearing
against five accused from January 17. One accused was
declared juvenile by six months. The first conviction
in the Nirbhaya gang rape case came on August 31,
2013, eight and a half months after she was raped. The
juvenile was held guilty and sentenced to a reforma-
tion centre for three years.
The fast-track court delivered its verdict in nine
months, declaring four accused guilty and award-
ing the death penalty to all. Six months later, the
Delhi High Court upheld the trial court ruling and
confirmed the death sentence to all four convicts.
This was on March 3, 2014. The matter reached the
Supreme Court, which began hearing this case on
a fast-track mode in April 2016 for more than three
years and three months after the crime was com-
mitted. In May 2017, the Supreme Court upheld death
sentences to the four convicts in Nirbhaya gang rape
case. Three of the four convicts filed review petitions
against the Supreme Court judgment.
In July 2018, the Supreme Court rejected the review
petitions. More than five and a half years had elapsed
since the crime was committed that shook India. Then
came a mercy petition to the President of India from
one of the convicts.
On December 1, the Delhi government recom-
mended to the President that the mercy petition of
the Nirbhaya case convict be rejected. Almost seven
years have passed since the crime was committed.
Irony is that the decision to reject mercy petition in
one of the benchmark cases of gang rape and murder
been given in the case of “Nirbhaya” who was gang came in the shadow of anger and protests over gang
raped and died later. There are similarities between rape and murder of the Hyderabad doctor. Now that
Nirbhaya the 2012 Delhi gang rape victim and the the mercy petition is set to be rejected, the mother of
Hyderabad gang rape victim. Both were from the the 2012 gang rape victim has expressed frustration
medical profession, while Nirbhaya was a paramedic over “endless wait for justice”. Yet Nirbhaya case has
student and the Hyderabad victim was a veterinarian. not reached its closure in seven years. Seen against
Both were young and in their twenties. In both cas- this background, the speed of justice delivery in the
es, the rapists and murders were from the transport Nirbhaya case offers little hope for a speedier justice
sector. In this case, the four accused, all lorry work- to the Hyderabad victim.
ers, were booked under Sections 376D (gang rape),
302 (murder), 201 (destroying evidence) of the Indian LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM

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