Chhawla Rape-Murder Case: Victim’s parents reach Supreme Court, appeal to reconsider the acquittal of all the three accused
2012 Chhawla Case: The petition filed on behalf of the victim’s family said that during the hearing many important facts were not brought before the apex court and some facts were misinterpreted.
Chhawla Case: In the Chhawla Rape-Murder Case, the victim’s family has filed a petition and appealed to the Supreme Court to reconsider it. On November 7, the Supreme Court acquitted three accused in the case who were sentenced to death by the trial court. Now the victim’s family has filed a petition and appealed to the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision. The petition states that several important facts were not brought before the apex court and some facts were misinterpreted.
Court had said, the prosecution failed to prove the guilt of the accused
A bench comprising the then Chief Justice of India UU Lalit, Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice Bela Trivedi acquitted all the three accused. The Supreme Court, while delivering the verdict, had observed that no identification parade was conducted during the investigation, nor were the accused identified by the witness during the deposition. Thus, the prosecution failed to prove the guilt of the accused and in the absence of clear and convincing evidence, the conviction does not stand.
The apex court also said in the judgment that there were many lapses during the hearing of the case. Out of total 49 witnesses examined by the prosecution, 10 important witnesses were not cross-examined and several other important witnesses were not adequately cross-examined by the defense counsel. The Supreme Court set aside the judgment of the Delhi High Court which had upheld the death sentence awarded by the trial court to the three accused.
The trial court had awarded the death sentence
Explain that Ravi Kumar, Rahul and Vinod were convicted under various charges of kidnapping, rape and murder. The Supreme Court had reserved its decision in this matter on April 7, 2022. The court had to decide whether to uphold the death sentence of the three. At the same time, the Delhi Police had opposed the application for commutation of the death sentence. In 2014, Delhi’s Dwarka court convicted three people in the 2012 case and sentenced them to death.
Rahul, Ravi and Vinod were accused of kidnapping the girl on February 9, 2012. She was returning home from her workplace when she was abducted. According to the police, later on February 14, near Rewari in Haryana, the decomposed body of the girl was found with multiple wounds. The postmortem revealed that she was attacked, murdered after rape and the body was dumped in the fields.
