New Delhi: The Delhi Police Wednesday sought an early hearing of its review petition filed against the Supreme Court’s acquittal of three men in the 2012 Chhawla gang rape and murder case in November last year. The petition points out that one of the accused, identified as Vinod, has now been arrested for murder.
The application, filed Wednesday, asserted that after being acquitted, Vinod had allegedly murdered an “innocent auto driver when the deceased resisted a robbery attempt by the accused”. An FIR in the case was filed on 26 January at the Dwarka Police Station, and Vinod has been arrested in the case.
“Commission of murder after his release indicated that the accused is a hardened criminal who has abused the benevolence of this Hon’ble Court,” the application said.
It also noted that “the act done by the accused Vinod clearly goes on to show that he was indeed a criminal-minded person and is in fact a threat to the society as a whole and does not deserve any leniency whatsoever”, and that “Vinod seems to be habituated to committing gruesome crimes and does not deserve to be allowed to be in the society”.
The application, therefore, demanded that Vinod’s arrest after his acquittal should be considered by the Supreme Court while hearing the review petition in the Chhawla gang rape and murder case.
Mentioning this application in the Supreme Court Wednesday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta demanded an open court hearing and a bench headed by the chief justice to hear the review petition.
In response, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud agreed to constitute a bench, and assured Mehta that he would consider the request for an open court hearing. Usually, a review petition is decided by circulation by the judges in chamber, without the presence of lawyers, unless the court agrees to hear it in open court.
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The conviction and acquittal
The gang rape and murder dates back to 9 February 2012, when the 19-year-old girl and her colleagues were returning home from Cyber Hub in Gurugram — where she worked as a data entry operator. Three men allegedly approached her and pulled her into a red Tata Indica. The incident, according to the Delhi HC verdict, happened not far from the victim’s home in Delhi’s Qutub Vihar area.
Her colleagues had immediately alerted the police and the family, who then filed a complaint at the Chhawla Police Station.
According to the prosecution, on 13 February 2012, the police arrested three men, two of whom led them to Rodai village in Haryana’s Rewari from where they retrieved the girl’s mutilated body the same day. She was allegedly gang raped and tortured. According to the post mortem report, she was attacked with liquor bottles and metal objects, and that there were signs of torture, including a head injury, burn marks and injuries on her private parts. Reports also suggested that acid was poured on her eyes and face.
The three men were convicted for kidnapping, gang rape and murder by a Delhi court in 2014 and sentenced to death. The same year, the Delhi High Court had upheld the death sentence, branding the men “trained bloodhounds” and “sexual psychopaths”.
However, in November last year, the Supreme Court gave the three accused – Rahul, Ravi and Vinod — the “benefit of doubt” and noted that the trial in the lower court was riddled with “many glaring lapses”. The Delhi Police had then filed a review petition challenging the judgment in December last year.
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