NEW DELHI: A review petition in the Supreme Court challenging the acquittal of the defendants in the 2012 Chhawla rape-murder case has been approved by Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena.
Tushar Mehta, the Solicitor General, and Aishwariya Bhati, another SG, have been appointed by L-G Saxena to represent the case before the Supreme Court.
The 19-year-old woman was allegedly kidnapped, raped, and murdered by the three guys in February 2012. Three days after her kidnapping, her mangled body was discovered.
The three men who had been given the death penalty in the Chhawla case were cleared by the Supreme Court a week ago.
The prosecution failed to present compelling, conclusive, and convincing evidence against the accused, including evidence based on DNA profiling and call detail records, according to the supreme court.
A trial court gave the case the moniker "rarest of rare" in 2014 and sentenced the three suspects to death. The Delhi High Court upheld the ruling.
The parents of the slain girl sought police protection after two of the three detainees were recently released from Rohini Jail following SC's acquittal.
The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) warned Delhi Police that the case was particularly sensitive and that the victim's close family members needed to be given high-level security because the criminals had been set free.
The conviction was overturned more than ten years after a woman from the Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand was kidnapped in Delhi and later discovered dead in a field in the Rewari district of Haryana.
She had gotten off a bus on February 9, 2012, around ten minutes from her home in Chhawla Camp in the capital.
The woman was walking home with two pals while employed by a private company in Gurugram's Cyber City when she was kidnapped by males in a car.
Days later, her body was found with numerous wounds and burn marks.
The autopsy report highlighted the use of car tools, glass bottles, and sharp metal objects in the attack.
The three defendants, Ravi and Vinod, were found guilty and given death sentences by a city court on February 19, 2014.
On August 26 of that year, the Delhi High Court upheld the decision of the trial court, pointing out the brutality of the body's mutilation both before and after the woman was abducted and raped, and referring to the accused as "trained bloodhounds picking out a scent."
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