Expedite judicial process in Nirbhaya rape case: Swati Maliwal writes to President

New Delhi: Delhi Commission for Women chairperson Swati Maliwal requested President Ram Nath Kovind to streamline the judicial process to ensure hanging of the four convicts in the 2012 gang rape-and-murder case.

Three of the four convicts in the case, who were sentenced to death, are likely to file a curative petition challenging the death penalty soon.

A 23-year-old paramedic student, who later came to be known as Nirbhaya (fearless), was raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in South Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road. She died on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

One of the accused, Ram Singh, had hanged himself in the jail and another, a juvenile, was convicted of rape and murder and given the maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment in a reform facility.

In a letter addressed to President Kovind, Maliwal said there should be a fixed timeline within which the entire judicial process needs to be completed to avoid such cases from dragging on.

"If deemed fit, your hon'ble self may kindly direct the Union Government to immediately introduce an ordinance in the country that ensures that in the cases of rape, the trial is completed within 3 months of the crime and further, all appeals, review petitions and curative petitions are disposed within the next three months. There should be guarantee of justice within 6 months," she said, in the letter to the president.

She urged President Kovind to set a definite mechanism to give justice to victims of rape.

"Further, I sincerely hope that your hon'ble self will issue strict directions to expedite the judicial process in the case of Nirbhaya and ensure that the convicts are hanged at the earliest," she said.