The wife of a rapist sentenced to hang tomorrow for his part in an infamous sex attack on a Delhi bus in 2012 has begged an Indian court for a last minute divorce to 'avoid being a widow'.
Akshay Thukar, 31, is due to be executed at 5.30am tomorrow morning along with three other men who were convicted of gang-raping 23-year-old Jyoti Singh on a bus in India's capital late at night in December 2012. Singh later died from her extensive internal injuries.
Punita Devi, Thukar's wife, filed a divorce petition on Wednesday, which attests to her husband's innocence while asking for a pre-execution split.
Punita claims in the petition that her husband is 'a convict in the Nirbhaya case, but he is innocent'.
According to OutlookIndia, Punita wishes to be divorced from Thukar due to the social stigma of being a widow in India.
'If Akshay is hanged on March 20, she will become a widow,' an unnamed relative told outlookIndia.
'She doesn’t want to live as a widow as it is a social stigma.
'She wants to divorce him first.'
She filed the petition on Wednesday but the presiding judge had not been sitting. Punita rushed to Delhi today to try to push through the documents, Thakar's lawyer AP Singh said.
If the notice is issued later than today, Thakar will still be hanged tomorrow morning.
According to OutlookIndia, Punita wishes to be divorced from Thukar due to the social stigma of being a widow in India.
'If Akshay is hanged on March 20, she will become a widow,' an unnamed relative told outlookIndia.
'She doesn’t want to live as a widow as it is a social stigma.
'She wants to divorce him first.'
She filed the petition on Wednesday but the presiding judge had not been sitting. Punita rushed to Delhi today to try to push through the documents, Thakar's lawyer AP Singh said.
If the notice is issued later than today, Thakar will still be hanged tomorrow morning.
Akshay is the final defendant out of four given the death sentence in the case to file a review petition before India's top court. It too was expected to be rejected.
At the time, the judge said the ultimate punishment was needed as a ‘strong deterrent’ after a case that ‘shocked the conscience’ of a nation.
The sentences were welcomed by the victim’s family and scores of people outside the court building in Delhi, who chanted ‘Justice, justice’, as news of the punishment was relayed to them.
Even children were seen holding drawings and placards of the men being hung by a noose.
Media reports this week said they could be hanged before the end of the year, and possibly on December 16, the anniversary of the attack.
Some reports said that Tihar prison, where they are incarcerated, has held a dummy execution to test the gallows and that special ropes are being brought from elsewhere.
A Tihar prison official said that they had no knowledge of any such preparations, however.
Every winter Delhi is shrouded for months in a toxic smog that experts say is shortening the lives of the megacity's 20 million inhabitants.
The pollution appeal comes shortly after another Indian woman was gang-raped and murdered last month, sparking protests and calls for reform of the country's notoriously slow legal system.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
