The wife of Akshay Kumar, one of the four death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, who has filed for divorce, fainted outside the Patiala House court in Delhi on Thursday, 19 March and said she and her minor son should be hanged too.
Kumar’s wife, Puneeta Devi, filed a divorce petition before a Bihar family court recently, saying she did not wish to live with the label of ‘a rapist's widow.’
“I want justice too. Kill me too. I do not want to live. My husband is innocent. Why is the society after us?” she said while crying hysterically outside the court.
“We were living with the hope that we will get justice but we are being killed everyday for the last seven years,” she added.
Devi, who beat herself with sandals, was consoled by the lawyers present outside the court.
However, the counsel for the victim's parents said the convict did not deserve any leniency.
“Akshay was a member of our society. Everybody is pained by unnatural deaths, but Akshay does not deserve any leniency,” he said.
On 5 March, a trial court issued fresh death warrants for 5:30 am on 20 March for the execution of convicts Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31).
The court was informed on Thursday that no legal remedies of any of the convicts were pending in any court.
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