Supreme Court: India shock as men sentenced to death for rape freed

Ten years agone erstwhile a 19-year-old Delhi pistillate was recovered pack raped and murdered successful the fields of the neighbouring authorities of Haryana, it was described arsenic a "rarest of rare" case.

Indians were shocked by quality reports which elaborate the brutality to which the teen - named Anamika successful tribunal documents arsenic her existent sanction could not beryllium revealed - had been subjected.

Three men, arrested for the crime, were fixed the decease punishment by a proceedings tribunal successful 2014 and the Delhi High Court had confirmed the sentences a fewer months later.

But connected Monday, successful a stunning reversal, the Indian Supreme Court acceptable the men free, saying determination was nary "cogent, clinching and wide evidence" that they had committed the crime.

The three-judge seat raised superior questions astir the constabulary investigation, criticised the sessions tribunal for "glaring lapses" successful the proceedings and said the justice had acted similar a "passive umpire".

"This is what justness looks similar successful India 2022," 1 Twitter idiosyncratic wrote, sharing a photograph of the woman's dejected father.

Anamika's begetter told maine that his "hopes of getting justness were dashed successful minutes".

"We had waited for 10 years for justice. We had religion successful the judiciary, we believed that the Supreme Court volition corroborate the decease punishment and my daughter's killers would beryllium yet hanged," helium said.

The 19-year-old lived successful Chhawla, a little middle-class agrarian country successful south-west Delhi. In January 2012, she started a occupation astatine a telephone centre successful Gurgaon, a suburb of Delhi, and was the sole breadwinner for her family.

"She had conscionable received her archetypal wage and was thrilled," says anti-rape activistic Yogita Bhayana, who has been supporting the household successful their combat for justness for the past 8 years.

On the nighttime of 9 February 2012, Anamika was returning location from enactment with 3 friends erstwhile she was abducted by men successful a reddish car.

The gruesome transgression made headlines successful India aft her partially burnt, horribly mutilated assemblage with signs of torture was recovered 4 days later.

During trial, the prosecution argued that the lawsuit against the accused was water-tight - they said they had recovered the wallet of 1 of the 3 men astatine the transgression scene, that the suspects had confessed to the transgression and had led the constabulary to the assemblage and helped retrieve the victim's clothing.

DNA samples collected from humor stains, semen and hairsbreadth recovered successful the seized car proved that the accused and the unfortunate had been successful the vehicle, they added.

The proceedings tribunal convicted the men and gave them the decease punishment 2 years later. While confirming their decease sentence, the precocious tribunal described the accused arsenic "predators".

But Monday's 40-page Supreme Court order, authored by Justice Bela Trivedi, questioned the grounds presented by the prosecution and said it was imaginable that it had been tampered with.

Pointing retired a "number of inconsistencies and contradictions successful the grounds of the constabulary and successful the testimonies of the ceremonial witnesses", the tribunal said:

The tribunal besides said that the grounds taken from the car was sent for forensic introspection connected 27 February - astir 2 weeks aft it was seized. "Under the circumstances, the anticipation of tampering with the samples could not beryllium ruled out," she wrote.

Acknowledging that "if the accused successful a heinous transgression spell unpunished, a benignant of agony and vexation whitethorn beryllium caused to the nine successful wide and to the household of the unfortunate successful particular", the bid said that the "prosecution has failed to beryllium the charges beyond tenable uncertainty and we person nary alternate but to acquit the accused, though progressive successful a precise heinous crime".

The BBC has emailed apical Delhi constabulary officials for comment.

Charu Wali Khanna, the lawyer for Anamika's household who assisted the prosecution, told maine the bid would beryllium challenged successful the Supreme Court with a reappraisal petition.

"This judgement is precise vague and it raises these hyper-technical issues. It says the grounds could person been tampered with, but it does not indict the police," she said.

"The bid says determination was nary clinching evidence, but they disregarded a batch of grounds that was against the accused," she added.

Anamika's father, who works arsenic a information defender astatine a school, told maine helium had gone to the tribunal consecutive from enactment connected Monday aft his nighttime shift.

Ms Bhayana, who waited extracurricular the tribunal with the parents portion the judgement was work out, spoke of the choler and disappointment they felt.

"I'm heartbroken, I don't person the words to explicate however I feel. So you tin ideate however the parents indispensable feel," she told me.

Ms Bhayana said she "didn't adjacent person 1% apprehension" that thing similar this could hap and had been assuring the household that this was "the extremity of the road" successful their combat for justice.

"But it's each collapsed astir us. When the lawyer messaged maine informing astir the order, my archetypal absorption was of disbelief. I thought I must've misheard."

Ms Bhayana says if the Supreme Court had concerns astir the investigation, they could person reopened the case, ordered different investigation, oregon handed implicit the lawsuit to the national police.

"The information is that a young pistillate was gang-raped and brutally murdered. The tribunal indispensable supply immoderate benignant of remedy to her family," she says.

Anamika's father, meanwhile, is bewildered.

"Mere upar to vajr gir gaya [I person been deed by the bolt from the sky]," helium told me.

"What has the Supreme Court done? The courts did not person immoderate doubts for 10 years. So however did everything abruptly go a lie?" helium asks.

"Everyone says India is not harmless for its girls. After this tribunal order, nary miss successful India volition beryllium safe. This volition embolden criminals further," helium says.