NEW DELHI: Delhi's Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena on Monday approved filing of a review petition in the Supreme Court against the November 7 decision, acquitting the three accused of rape and murder in the "gruesome" Chhawla case.
He has also granted his permission for engagement of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati to represent the Government.
The release of two of the three prisoners from Rohini Jail recently, following the SC’s acquittal had prompted the parents of the murdered girl to seek police protection out of fear, a statement from the LG's office said.
In its judgement, the Supreme Court had set free three men on death row in the 2012 murder and gangrape of a 19-year-old woman in Delhi's Chhawla area, giving them a benefit of doubt due to glaring lapses during the investigation and trial of the "heinous" case.
A bench of Chief Justice U U Lalit and comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi had said as the prosecution has to bring home the charges, the court is left with no alternative but to acquit the accused, though involved in a very heinous crime.
The top court set aside the judgement and orders of conviction and sentence passed by the trial court and the High Court.
Justice Trivedi, who authored the judgement on behalf of the bench, said the evidence with regard to the arrest of the appellants-accused, their identification, discoveries and recoveries of the incriminating articles, identity of the Indica Car, the seizures and sealing of the articles and collection of samples, the medical and scientific evidence, the report of DNA profiling, the evidence with regard to the CDRs etc were not proved by the prosecution by leading, cogent, clinching and clear evidence much less unerringly pointing the guilt of the accused.
The autopsy of the victim had revealed that she was attacked with car tools, glass bottles, metal objects, and other weapons.
According to the police, one of the accused allegedly took revenge after the woman turned down his proposal.
The prosecution had submitted that the woman, who belonged to Uttarakhand and worked in Gurugram's Cyber City area, was abducted by the three accused from near her home while she was returning from her workplace.
The prosecution claimed, the woman's mutilated and decomposed body was found in a village in Haryana's Rewari.
Since the three accused were poor, their appeal before the Supreme Court was taken up by the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee, which assigned the case to senior advocate A Sirajudeen.
The top court had also appointed senior advocate Sonia Mathur to assist in the matter as amicus curiae, while the prosecution was represented by Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati.
