The wife of Akshay Thakur, one of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya rape case, has filed for a divorce in a local court in Bihar’s Aurangabad. The court has scheduled a hearing on March 19, just a day before the convicts’ hanging, which is for March 20.
In her plea, the wife, Punita Thakur, has said she does not want to live the life of a widow as her husband is set to be hanged.
Punita said, “My husband is innocent. I want to be legally divorced before he is hanged.”
Her lawyer, Mukesh Kumar Singh, in a statement has said, “My client (Akshay Kumar Singh’s wife Punita Singh) has a right to seek divorce from her husband. That is why I have filed a plea in the family court. She has the right to seek divorce under Section 13(2)(II) of Hindu Marriage Act which says a woman can seek divorce if the husband has, since the solemnisation of the marriage, been guilty of rape, sodomy or bestiality.”
Earlier, on March 17, another convict Mukesh Singh, moved a court in Delhi, asking for a reversal of his death penalty warrant, stating that he was not in Delhi on the date of the crime and also alleged that he was tortured inside the Tihar jail.
The plea, filed before Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Rana, claimed that on December 16, 2012, Mukesh Singh was not in Delhi at the time when the crime took place and was arrested from Rajasthan and brought to Delhi on December 17, 2012.
The horrific Nirbhaya rape case has been in the limelight since it happened on December 16, 2012, in a moving bus which led to the medical student’s subsequent death in a Singapore hospital later. All the six accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. One of the accused was a minor and appeared before a juvenile justice court, while another accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail days after the trial began in the case.
After much delay and mercy petition pleas, the convicts are to be hanged on March 20. Chances of any further delay in the 4 convicts’ hanging are now minimal, as all formalities have been completed and the convicts have exhausted all legal remedies.