Nirbhaya expressed her pain on the hospital bed and conveyed her last wish – the rapists must pay, they should be burnt alive, not just hanged. Usha Chaturvedi, the then sub-divisional officer who recorded her death presentation, reviewed her keep going words on Friday; hours after the Supreme Court maintained capital punishment for the four convicts.
Nirbhaya verdict: In pain, she wanted rapists dead
“Today, I am very happy and satisfied that these people will be hanged. Nirbhaya’s dying statement was given under great pain and stress. Yet, she didn’t leave out any point so that justice could be done,” Chaturvedi told TOI after the judgment.
The officer talked with Nirbhaya on December 21, taking after her first surgery, when for a concise period, she could answer addresses and portray her experience in detail. Through motions and words, Chaturvedi revealed, Nirbhaya passed on to her the degree of outrage and repugnance she felt.
“She gave me information that formed a four-page dying declaration in one sitting. Despite being in so much pain, she said the rapists should not just be hanged but (also) set on fire,” the SDM recalled.
In its verdict, SC acknowledged the crucial role played by the death announcement that enabled agents to grab the charged and set up a case. As the judgment appeared, each time the guard legal advisors or the court delegated amicus curiae cast questions on the arraignment story, the seat swung to the dying declaration which, as it were, shaped the bedrock of the case.
“The stand that the deceased could not have given any dying declaration because of her health condition has to be repelled because the witnesses who have stated about the dying declarations have stood embedded to their version and nothing has been brought on record to discredit the same. That apart, the dying declaration by gestures has been proved beyond reasonable doubt,” it further observed, referring to the three statements Nirbhaya gave.
In their appeal, the four convicts had claimed that Nirbhaya couldn’t have given such a long death declaration running up to four pages as she was on oxygen support- a contention dismisses by SC.
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