2012 Chhawla Rape-Murder Case : Parents Of Victim Approach Supreme Court Seeking Review Of Judgment Acquitting 3 Accused

A review petition has been filed in the Supreme Court against the November 7 judgment which acquitted 3 men who were sentenced to death in the 2012 Chhawla rape case related to the gangrape and murder of a 19-year old girl.  The parents of the victim have filed the review petition stating that many crucial facts were not brought to notice before the top court and certain facts were incorrectly interpreted while the convicts' appeals were allowed.  

A bench comprising the then Chief Justice of India UU Lalit, Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice Bela Trivedi acquitted the three men by observing, "Every case has to be decided by the Courts strictly on merits and in accordance with law without being influenced by any kind of outside moral pressures."

The Top Court had stated that the prosecution was not able to prove the evidences with regard to the arrest of the accused, their identification, discoveries and recoveries of incriminating articles, medical and scientific evidence, the report of DNA profiling and evidences with regard to the CDRs. The Court had also observed that there was no Test Identification Parade conducted during the course of investigation, nor were the accused identified by the witness during deposition. Thus the prosecution had failed at pointing out the guilt of the accused and due to the lack of clear and cogent evidences the conviction could not be sustained.

The Top Court also stated in the judgment that, there were many glaring lapses during the trial of the matter. Out of the total 49 witnesses examined by the prosecution, 10 material witnesses were not cross-examined and many other important witnesses were not cross examined adequately by the defence counsel. The bench also observed that in various decisions the court had repeatedly observed that the judge is supposed to take active participation in the trial and question witnesses, but in the present case the judge played a role of a passive umpire. The Court thus, observed that the lack of cross-examination of the key witnesses and the judge playing the role of passive umpires, the accused were deprived of the rights to have a fair trial.

The Supreme Court set aside the judgment of the Delhi High Court which had upheld the conviction and the death sentence given by the trial court to the three accused.

The three persons Rahul, Ravi and Vinod were accused of abducting the girl while she was returning home from her work place on 9th February 2012. The police later found a mutilated body of the girl near Rewari in Haryana on 14th February with multiple wounds. In the autopsy it was found out that she was attacked, raped and acid was poured on her eyes.