Wife of Nirbhaya case convict Akshay Thakur on Tuesday filed a divorce petition in a local court in Bihar’s northeastern Aurangabad district. Along with three other convicts in the case, Akshay Thakur is to be hanged on March 20.
“My husband is a convict in the Nirbhaya case but he is innocent…Now, I want to be legally divorced from him before he is hanged as I don’t want to live the life of a widow,” Punita Devi, wife of Akshay Thakur, said in her petition filed at a family court in the local district court of Aurangabad. Son of Saryug Singh and Malti Devi, Akshay Thakur hails from the Lahangkarma village of Bihar’s Aurangabad district. The court has fixed March 19 as the next date of hearing.
My client [Punita Devi] has a right to seek divorce from her husband under section 13(2)(II) of the Hindu Marriage Act, which says a woman can seek divorce from her husband if he has been found guilty of rape, sodomy or bestiality. I have filed her petition in the family court of the district,” Mukesh Kumar Singh, Punita Devi’s lawyer told local journalists in Aurangabad. Ms. Devi also has a son to look after.
All the four convicts of Nirbhaya — Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) are currently lodged in Tihar jail and are set to be hanged on March 20. They have been using tactics to delay the hanging, which has already been postponed twice. They have even approached international court and India’s Human Rights Commission.
However, some legal experts feel that there is no chance of any further delay as all formalities have been completed and the convicts have exhausted all legal remedies.
