‘Earn livelihood by supporting rapists’: 2012 Delhi gangrape victim’s mother attacks Indira Jaising
The lawyer had asked Asha Devi to follow Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s example and forgive the four men convicted of raping her daughter.
Asha Devi, the mother of the 2012 Delhi gangrape victim, on Saturday lashed out at lawyer Indira Jaising for asking her to forgive the four convicts on death row for the crime committed against her daughter, ANI reported.
“Who is Indira Jaising to give me such a suggestion,” she asked. “Whole country wants the convicts to be executed. Just because of people like her, justice is not done with rape victims.”
Devi accused Jaising of earning her livelihood by supporting rapists. “Can’t believe how Indira Jaising even dared to suggest such this,” she added. “I met her many times over the years in Supreme Court, not once she asked for my well being and today she is speaking for convicts. Such people earn livelihood by supporting rapists, hence rape incidents don’t stop.”
On Friday, Jaising urged Devi to forgive the convicts, and to follow the path taken by Congress President Sonia Gandhi in the case of assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
“While I fully identify with the pain of Asha Devi I urge her to follow the example of Sonia Gandhi who forgave Nalini and said she didn’t not want the death penalty for her,” the lawyer tweeted. “We are with you but against death penalty.”
The convicts Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Singh, and Akshay Kumar Singh would be executed at 6 am on February 1.
Asha Devi: Can't believe how Indira Jaising even dared to suggest such this. I met her many times over the years in Supreme Court,not once she asked for my wellbeing& today she is speaking for convicts.Such ppl earn livelihood by supporting rapists,hence rape incidents don't stop https://t.co/Gjf02l9LT4 pic.twitter.com/Rl3sMbppl5
— ANI (@ANI) January 18, 2020
While I fully identify with the pain of Asha Devi I urge her to follow the example of Sonia Gandhi who forgave Nalini and said she didn’t not want the death penalty for her . We are with you but against death penalty. https://t.co/VkWNIbiaJp
— Indira Jaising (@IJaising) January 17, 2020
The case
Six men raped and brutally assaulted a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012. The woman succumbed to her injuries two weeks later at a hospital in Singapore. The gangrape triggered huge protests in the Capital and across the country. One convict died in prison, while a minor convict was sent to a detention home for juveniles and was released in December 2015.
The four were given the death penalty – first by a trial court in September 2013, which was upheld by the Delhi High Court six months later and the Supreme Court in May 2017.
The four convicts were to be executed on January 22, but this has been delayed because of a mercy plea filed by one of them to the President. After President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the plea on Thursday, a new execution date was set by a Delhi court, for February 1.