Nirbhaya’s lawyer not allowed to meet Hathras victim’s family

Lucknow, Oct 02: Seema Kushwaha, lawyer of the 2012 Delhi gangrape case on Thursday said the family of the alleged gangrape victim in Hathras has requested her to stand as their legal counsel but the state administration was not allowing her to meet them.

"The family (of alleged gangrape victim) has asked me to come to Hathras as they want me to stand as their legal counsel. I was in touch with the police and the victim's brother. I am not being allowed to meet them as the administration is saying that it will affect law and order situation," Kushwaha told ANI.

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"I wanted to ask how my meeting with the family will create law and order problem. I came here as an individual, how can I create law and order problem. I will not leave from here before meeting the family and the administration has to ensure the meeting so that people can trust that administration is helping. As a private counsel, I want to give my help," she added.

Kushwaha was the family lawyer of the 23-year-old paramedical student who was gangraped in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in Delhi.

All four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case -- Akshay Singh Thakur, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, and Mukesh Singh -- were hanged to death in March, this year, 2020.

The 19-year-old Hathras girl had succumbed to assault injuries in Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital on Tuesday where she was brought on Monday from Aligarh Muslim University Medical College.

All you need to know about Seema Kushwaha

Seema Samriddhi Kushwaha was born in a village called Uggarpur in Uttar Pradesh. "Until recently, if you Googled it-it wouldn't show up-that's how remote it is," she tells.

The Nirbhaya case, the most talked-about rape case in the country, was Kushwaha's first.

Kushwaha is a young lawyer now preparing for her civil services examination. She was still studying when decided to fight the Delhi gang rape case in 2013.

She graduated from Delhi University in 2014, but before that, in 2013, she had secured a death sentence for the rapists from the Saket Court.

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Today, she also serves as a legal advisor for the Nirbhaya Jyoti Trust, a charitable institute that helps women who have experienced violence.