Delhi LG nod to file review petition against SC order acquitting three accused in Chhawla rape-murder case

Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has approved the filing of a review petition in the Supreme Court challenging its decision to acquit three convicts in the 2012 Chhawla rape-and-murder case who were awarded the death sentence by a lower court, officials said on Monday.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has approved the filing of a review petition in the Supreme Court challenging its decision to acquit three convicts in the 2012 Chhawla rape-and-murder case who were awarded the death sentence by a lower court, officials said on Monday. Saxena has also approved engaging Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to represent the Delhi government in the case, a senior official said. The father of the victim welcomed Saxena's decision and hoped that the three men will be hanged to death.

''I have rested all my hopes on the Solicitor General of India now. I am sure he will convince the Supreme Court and get all the three rapists and murderers hanged to death,'' the victim's father told PTI after the LG gave the go-ahead to file the review petition. 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? I will fight till my last breath to get justice,'' the father said. The three men were awarded the death sentence by a trial court which was upheld by the Delhi High Court for the gruesome rape and murder of a 19-year old woman on February 9, 2012 at Chhawla in Delhi's Dwarka.

They had appealed against the sentence in the Supreme Court which set aside the trial court and high court orders in its judgment on November 7 this year. ''The LG has approved the filing of a review petition in the Supreme Court against its decision of acquitting the three accused,'' a senior Delhi government official said.

The SC's acquittal prompted the parents of the victim to seek police protection out of fear, the officials said.

The acquittal of the accused had led to massive outrage with women's rights activists criticising the decision saying it will embolden the accused. 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 a candle light march on November 20 with students and volunteers to demand justice for the victim.

''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.

According to the prosecution, the victim was from Uttarakhand. Meanwhile, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami thanked Lieutenant Governor Saxena for allowing to file a petition against the Supreme Court verdict acquitting the three convicts in the case.

''Heartfelt thanks to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi for allowing to file a review petition against the acquittal of the convicts in the Chhawla case,'' Dhami said in a tweet in Hindi.

The Uttarakhand chief minister said his government will do everything possible to get justice for the daughter of the state and ensure that the culprits get the harshest punishment.

While acquitting the three men, the Supreme Court had said the law does not permit courts to punish an accused on the basis of moral conviction or on suspicion alone.

The court made the observation while noting that a kind of agony and frustration may be caused to society in general and to the family of the victim in particular if the accused involved in the heinous crime go unpunished or are acquitted.

The bench had said the prosecution failed to provide leading, cogent, clinching and clear evidence, including those related to DNA profiling and call detail records against the accused, and said the trial court also acted as a passive umpire.

According to the prosecution, the woman worked in Gurgaon'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 person's report, the prosecution said, adding the woman's mutilated and decomposed 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.