Lawyers vow not to defend all the rapists of the 23-year-old paramedical student

New Delhi, January 2, 2013

India continues to mourn the death of the 23-year-old gangrape victim, there is a big demand of awarding death penalty and chemical castration to all the rapists, who have raped and brutally assaulted the victim on the night of December 16, 2012 in the national capital.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has demanded death penalty and chemical castration to all the rapists of the recent gangrape in Delhi. She urged the Central government to give chemical castration or death penalty to those who commit rape.

Jayalalithaa also said that Fast Track Mahila Courts would be set up in all the 32 districts of Tamil Nadu to expedite hearing of cases of sexual assault.

This fervent demand comes out after the gangrape incident in Delhi, where a 23-year-old paramedical student, was gang-raped by six men in a moving bus on December 16 night. The incident sparks angers and outrages across the country.

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has written letters to all political parties asking them to send their suggestions to the Justice Verma Committee, a body set up to look into the laws of crime against women. The committee is said to give the report within a month.

The decision taken by Tamil Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has been welcomed by the National Commission for Women (NCW). NCW chairperson Mamta Sharma said it was a welcome and a good decision to amend the Goondas Act.

Meanwhile, the owner of the bus in which the brutal gangrape took place, Dinesh Yadav, has been booked on January 1.  The residential proof submitted by Yadav was found to be false because he never resided at the mentioned address, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Sindhu Pillai told reporters.

Dinesh Yadav has given false information to the State transport department in getting a registration certificate and permit for the bus, said Pillai, “10 other buses were registered in his name”.  The bus owner, Yadav, who had gone missing since the incident, was arrested by the police on December 2.

Delhi Police is expected to file a 1000-page chargesheet on December 3, after which the case will be referred to the fast-track courts. Police also conducted a bone test on one of the six suspects to confirm his claim that he is 17 years old. Police says they will seek death penalty for the other five accused.

Lawyers of the Saket District Bar Council stood firmly not to defend all the rapists of the brutal gangrape. “No lawyer will stand up to defend them. It would be immoral to defend the case,” Sanjay Kumar, member of the Saket District Bar Council, told NDTV.

Finally, the Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir on December 3 inaugurated one of the five fast-track courts in Saket Complex, New Delhi for quick trial of the accused in the recent gangrape of 23-year-old paramedical student. The other four fast-track courts will simultaneously function from Rohini, Tiz Hazari Court, and Patiala House Court.

In the meanwhile, Union Minister Shashi Tharoor suggested that a revised Anti-Rape Law be named after the 23-year-old Delhi gangrape victim.

The victim has been named by the media as ‘Damini’, ‘Nirbhaya’ and ‘Amanat’.

 

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