Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Dec 7: The Hyderabad police have become overnight heroes after they shot the alleged rapists who murdered a Hyderabad based veterinarian in an encounter in wee hours of Friday. While some call it ‘speedy justice’ others are questioning the method this justice was delivered.
At this juncture, many are analyzing the status of the Unnao rape case, Kathua rape case, Muzaffarpur Shelter Home which are currently in court. These crimes shook the nation and took place after the Nirbhaya Act came into force. Inspite of hitting the headlines, reports emerge that the victims and their family members are waiting for justice to be delivered.
The 2017 case of alleged kidnapping and rape of the then minor girl by ex-BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Sengar in Unnao was transferred by the Supreme Court to a trial court in Delhi with a direction to CBI to complete the investigation within seven days.
On August 2 it directed that CBI could avail additional seven days in exceptional circumstances.
The three accused in the gang rape case, Naresh Tiwari, Brijesh Yadav Singh and Shubham Singh, are all out on bail.
The final arguments in the case are on under District Judge Dharmesh Sharma, who recently concluded recording statements of defence witnesses and started hearing the CBI's arguments.
In the Muzaffarpur Shelter Home case, several minor girls were sexually and physically assaulted in a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. Former Bihar People's Party MLA Brajesh Thakur is the prime accused. The verdict in the case is likely on December 12, a month after its earlier decided date.
The 2018 rape and murder of an 8-year-old nomadic girl in a Kathua village had seen the conviction of six people. Four months later, in October, a court in Jammu, however, directed the police to register an FIR against six members of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which probed the case, for allegedly torturing and coercing witnesses to give false statements.
In June this year, District and Sessions Judge Tejwinder Singh sentenced to life imprisonment the three main accused, while awarding five years in jail to three others for the destruction of evidence in the case that shook the nation.
The trial was shifted to Pathankot in Punjab on the order of the Supreme Court after lawyers in Kathua attempted to prevent submission of the chargesheet in court.
In the December 2012, a 23-year-old paramedic student in Delhi was brutally raped and murdered. The case was called ‘Nirbhaya’ and the Supreme Court in July last year dismissed review pleas of three of the four convicts, upholding their death penalty.
One of the accused in the case, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail here.
A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board. He was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.
In another shocking case, yet again in Unnao, a 23-year old rape case survivor who was burnt alive on December 5 by two accused died on December 6 at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital after battling for life for almost 40 hours.
The young rape survivor had been attacked on Thursday morning by two, Shivam Trivedi and Shubham, accused of raping her last December.
As she was on her way to nearby town Raibareli to testify against the criminals in a local court she was waylaid, attacked, stabbed and then finally doused with kerosene and set ablaze in broad daylight.
In the aftermath of the Nirbhaya Rape Case, The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013 popularly known as the Nirbhaya Act was enacted. The Act which came into force on April 3, 2013, has stringent punishments to deal with sex crimes against women. However, reports show that in spite of making the law more stringent, brutal rapes have continued to take place.