Ashiana gang-rape survivor gearing up for the next fight

THE ROAD AHEAD She says she will spare no efforts to get Shukla’s sentence enhanced to life imprisonment and ensure he doesn’t get ‘easy bail’

LUCKNOW: A day after the fast track court declared ten years’ imprisonment for Gaurav Shukla, the prime accused in the Ashiana gang-rape case, the survivor woke up to see the judgment splashed across newspapers. With a new energy, she said, she promised herself to gear up for the next battle: enhancement of Shukla’s punishment to life imprisonment and ensuring that he is not granted bail.

“I am sure he would move the higher courts, pleading his case but he must know that I am equally ready to fight him till the Supreme Court,” said the survivor. The court’s judgment announcing Gaurav Shukla’s conviction, despite all the delay tactics he employed, have added to her confidence she said.

“My belief in the judiciary has become firm now. The fast track court convicted him and the Supreme Court rejected his plea for age revision. This has made me believe that no matter how much money or power Shukla may have, nothing would work before law,” she said.

Challenging the moneyed and the influential Shukla and his family for all these years has not been easy but the determined girl said that she had the support of her family and the civil society to fall back on.

“Shukla may think that he has money and that would make him get an easy bail but I will not allow that to happen. I will work to ensure that he spends time in jail, repenting his animal instincts,” she added.

The survivor reiterated that she would fearlessly continue her fight and take it till the end.

“This is just one battle won. There are others ahead. I am right and so I don’t fear any threat. What I know is that I will not leave him to move around freely,” she asserted.

I am sure he would move the higher courts, pleading his case but he must know that I am equally ready to fight him till the Supreme Court. My belief in the judiciary has become firm now. ASHIANA SURVIVOR