‘ Will continue fight till law is changed’
Fight not just for Nirbhaya, says mother
After the Supreme Court’s decision not to stall release of the December 16 gangrape convict on Monday, parents of the 23- year- old victim said the courts have failed them and asked how many Nirbhayas would it take for the laws to change.
Her mother Asha Devi said her fight against the system would continue. “We were not very hopeful that the Supreme Court will give a favourable verdict, but I want to ask how many Nirbhayas are needed for the laws to change in the country,” the victim’s father Badri Singh Pandey told reporters.
“The court is not bothered about the concerns of the public... This fight is not just about Nirbhaya but for every girl who is unsafe in a country which has such laws,” he added.
The victim’s mother said she would fight till the law is changed. “I will not be defeated, the court decision can’t stop me, I have to fight a long battle, I will fight till the bill is passed and law is changed.” “The court is saying that the law does not permit further punishment for the juvenile, but why is the case against other convicts still pending. Why have they not been hanged yet?” she asked.
The Supreme Court dismissed a plea by DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal against the release of the juvenile offender, saying, “there has to be a clear legislative sanction” in this.
The convict was sent to an NGO in Delhi. He along with five others, had gangraped and murdered the 23- year- old paramedical student in a moving bus on December 16, 2012, an incident that shook the nation and led to widespread protests. He was sentenced to three years in a reform home, Place of Safety, in north Delhi’s Magazine Road by Juvenile Justice Board, a punishment which drew criticism from several people who claimed it was inadequate and disproportionate to the crime he had committed. There were also demands that he be tried in an adult court. The existing Juvenile Justice Act provides for a maximum sentence of three years in a correctional facility.
The parents of the victim as well as other protesters were detained on Saturday as well as Sunday for holding demonstrations in violation of prohibitory orders. The convict, who is now 20 years old and was known to be the most brutal of the six attackers, was released on Sunday after the Supreme Court in a post- midnight order declined to stay his release in response to a special leave petition filed by Ms Maliwal.