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Ten years ago, a 19-year-old Delhi girl was found gang-raped and murdered in the fields of Haryana. The case was called the “rarest of the rare” case.
People in India were shocked by the horrific news, which was described as Anamika’s real name in court documents cannot be disclosed under Indian law.
Three men arrested for the crime were found guilty by a court in 2014. They were sentenced to death. The Delhi High Court upheld the conviction a few months later.
But last Monday, the Supreme Court surprisingly acquitted the men. It said there was no “conclusive and clear evidence” that they had committed the crime.
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“This is what justice will look like in the India of 2022,” one user posted on Twitter. He shared a photo of the girl’s father who was depressed.
Some have compared the verdict to the Gujarat state government’s recent order to free convicts serving life sentences in the 2002 communal rape and murder of a pregnant Muslim woman named Bilgis Bano and her relatives during communal riots in Gujarat state.
Anamika’s father told me that “the hope of justice was dashed within minutes”.
“We have been waiting for justice for 10 years. We had faith in the judiciary. We hoped that the Supreme Court would uphold the death penalty and that those who killed my daughter would finally be hanged,” he said.
Anamika, 19, lived in Chawla, a lower-middle-class rural area in southwest Delhi. In January 2012, he started working at a call center in Gurgaon, a suburb of the capital. He was the sole source of support for his family.
“He was happy to get his first salary,” says Yogita Payana, an anti-rape activist who has been supporting his family in their fight for justice for the past eight years.
On the night of February 9, 2012, Anamika was returning home from work with three friends when she was abducted by people in a red car.
The gruesome crime made headlines in India after his half-burnt, brutally mutilated body was found four days later with signs of torture.
During the trial the prosecution argued that the case against the accused was very strong. The prosecution said a wallet belonging to one of the three men was found at the crime scene and the suspects confessed to the crime and led the police to the spot where the body was found and helped recover the victim’s clothes.
DNA samples collected from bloodstains, semen and hair recovered from the seized car proved that the accused and the victim were in the vehicle.
The trial court convicted the men and sentenced them to death two years later. While upholding their death sentences, the High Court described the accused as “poachers”.
But last Monday, the 40-page Supreme Court order was penned by Justice Baylo Trivedi. It questioned the evidence presented by the prosecution and said the evidence may have been tampered with:
- The court pointed out that “there are many inconsistencies in the evidence and testimony of the police”.
- The accused were not identified in court by a man who tried to fight the kidnappers and friends of the victim.
- The Delhi Police’s claim of “findings of a car bumper containing documents of one of the accused, a wallet etc” was not found in the first footage of the crime scene.
- The Haryana police, who were the first to reach the spot, did not mention these things in their report.
- The items were not mentioned in the seizure memo of the investigating officer.
- The mobile phone recovered by the police was not shown to the girl’s father to confirm whether it really belonged to Anamika.
- It is also not conclusively proved that the crime was committed in the red car seized by the police.
- The circumstances of the arrest are questionable.
- The non-trial of some of the accused created a “cloud of suspicion”.
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The court also said that the evidence recovered from the car was sent for forensic examination on February 27, almost two weeks after its seizure. “In such circumstances, the possibility of tampering with forensic evidence cannot be ruled out,” he wrote.
Acknowledging that “unpunishment of the accused in the heinous crime may cause some agony and disappointment to the entire society, especially the victim’s family,” the order said, “The prosecution has failed to prove. “We have no option but to acquit the accused, even if the allegations are beyond reasonable doubt, of the most heinous crime,” it said.
The BBC has emailed senior Delhi Police officials for their views.
Charu Wali Khanna, counsel for Anamika’s family, who filed the case, told me that a review petition will be filed in the Supreme Court challenging the order.
“This judgment is very ambiguous. This raises these high-tech issues. It says evidence may have been tampered with. But, it does not blame the police,” he said.
“The order says there is no concrete evidence. But, they ignored several pieces of evidence against the accused.”
Anamika’s father, who works as a watchman at the school, said he went straight to the court after work on Monday night.
Payana, who waited outside court with her parents as the verdict was read, spoke of the anger and disappointment they felt.
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“I am heartbroken. I have no words to explain how I feel. So you can imagine how parents would feel,” he told me.
Bayana said he had “not one cent of fear” that something like this could happen and assured the family that this was the “end” of their fight for justice.
“Everything has collapsed around us. When the lawyer messaged me about this order, my first reaction was disbelief. I thought I must have misheard the message.”
If the Supreme Court has concerns about the trial, they can reopen the case. Payana says another probe could have been ordered or the case could have been handed over to the Central Police.
“The truth is that a young woman was gang-raped and brutally murdered. The court should provide some solution to his family,” he says.
“I was struck by lightning from the sky,” said Anamika’s father. He was confused.
“What is the Supreme Court doing? For ten years the courts were not in doubt. Then how come everything is suddenly false?,” he asks.
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