Bihar court defers hearing on divorce petition of Nirbhaya case convict

The divorce petition filed by the wife of one of the convicts Akshay Singh Thakur has been deferred by Bihar Court till March 24. Wife of Akshay sought a divorce, saying she did not wish to be called "the widow of a rapist".

Aurangabad (Bihar): Bihar Court deferred the petition till March 24 filed by wife of one of the convicts Akshay Singh Thakur in the Nirbhaya gang rape case. Wife of Akshay sought a divorce, saying she did not wish to be called "the widow of a rapist".

The hearing was deferred by the family court here after the counsel for the petitioner who submitted that she has left for Delhi for a last meeting with Akshay Singh who faces the gallows on Friday.

Her counsel also said that she was likely to return after Singh's death sentence was executed and his last rites were performed.

The court posted the matter for next week observing that it was essential for the petitioner to be physically present for the matter to proceed. Akshay's wife has been maintaining that her husband was "innocent" and the divorce petition triggered speculation that it was a "ploy' to delay the execution of the death sentence.

Akshay Singh is a native of Lahankarma village in Aurangabad district of Bihar, about 225 km from Patna.

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The two got married on May 29, 2010 in Palom district of Jharkhand and have a 9-year-old son. Meanwhile, several other petitions in the matter are also pending before Delhi court, Delhi High Court, Supreme Court and Election Commission of India.

The case pertains to the brutal gang-rape and killing of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in the national capital. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.

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