“I am unhappy with the high court’s verdict. It has left me disheartened and discouraged,” said Sabita Ghosh on Thursday, hours after the Delhi High Court commuted the death sentence of two men, who had robbed and killed her daughter, to life in prison.
Sabita said she was anxious in the morning, enough to skip her breakfast. But she was confident, that the court will uphold the death sentence.
“I missed lunch too after the high court verdict. I did not feel like eating,” Sabita, 59, told Hindustan Times.
Sabita said that the court’s decision showed there was “sympathy for the killers” rather than the victim’s ageing parents. “The killers may have been spared the gallows because of their young age but what about our lives? Our pain doesn’t matter? Why is there hesitation to hand out the harshest punishment when the crime has been established without any doubt?” she said, holding back tears.
Jigisha Ghosh, a 28-year-old IT executive, was abducted by four men in 2009 from near her house in south Delhi’s Vasant Kunj after her office cab dropped her back around 4 am. She was then robbed and killed.
Contrary to what the court observed, Sabita said that the crime qualified to be labelled as the “rarest of rare”. “If the case is not seen as the rarest of rare, such crimes will become routine in our country. Women will continue to fear going out for work at night time,” she said.
She said that when she was first brought face to face with the killers, she could see the cruelty in their eyes. “Though all three of them were involved in the crime, I know the man who actually killed my daughter. The least I want is a death for him,” said Sabita, who said that she will approach the Supreme Court against the verdict.
Sabita also alleged that cases like Jigisha’s murder were being diluted to avoid handing out death sentences. She demanded that the case be accorded the same importance as the December 16 gang rape one. “If there is no outrage over a crime, it is not taken seriously. It provides an opportunity to dilute the cases,” she said.
Sabita said that for the last nine years, she and her husband were visiting courtrooms to see that their daughter’s killers being punished.
The court battle has taken its toll on Sabita and her 73-year-old husband, Jagannath. The couple have been frequently falling ill for the last five years, she said.
“Last year, my husband Jagannath suffered from typhoid and barely managed to recover. But we did not give up our battle and kept attending court hearings. Hospital visits have become regular for us and we have only each other for support. The court’s decision has left us broken,” she said.
In the months before a lower court sentenced the three men in the case to death, the couple had alleged that they were getting threat calls. “The threat is real. Police advised us never to disclose our home address. Many of our own people don’t know where we live now,” said Sabita.