The wife of Akshay Kumar Singh, one among the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, has filed for divorce in a local court at Aurangabad in Bihar.
Akshay’s wife Punita stated in her plea that she does not want to live the life of a widow and wants to be legally divorced before her husband is hanged.
“My husband is innocent. I want to be legally divorced before he is hanged,” she said.
The court has now posted the matter for March 19, a day before the scheduled hanging of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.
Punita’s lawyer Mukesh Kumar Singh said that she has the right to seek divorce under Section 13(2) (II) of Hindu Marriage Act which says a woman can seek divorce if the husband has, since the solemnisation of the marriage, been guilty of rape, sodomy or bestiality.
“My client has a right to seek divorce from her husband. That is why I have filed a plea in the family court,” he added.
Meanwhile, Akshay has written a second mercy petition to President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday.
The petition will be forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs via the Delhi government.
The four convicts of the Nirbahya gang rape and murder case are scheduled to be hanged on March 20 at 5.30 am.
The case pertains to the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in the national capital on December 16, 2012.
She died on December 29 in that year at a hospital in Singapore following complications.