Nirbhaya Convict’s Wife Seeks Divorce Fearing ‘Rapist’s Widow’ Tag

Puneeta Devi, wife of Akshay Thakur, who hails from central Bihar, moved the family court on Tuesday.

Nirbhaya rape and murder case convicts hanged to death.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

The wife of one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, who face the gallows later this week, has filed a divorce petition before a court here saying she does not wish to live with the label of being "a rapist's widow".

Puneeta Devi, wife of Akshay Thakur, who hails from Nabinagar block in this central Bihar district, moved the family court on Tuesday, 17 March, and the petition is likely to come up for hearing on Thursday.

According to her counsel, Mukesh Kumar Singh, there is a provision in law that a woman can seek divorce on the ground of her husband being charged with a sexual offence.

Till recently, Thakur's wife had maintained that her husband was "innocent" and wrongly accused of involvement in the heinous gang rape that took place inside a moving bus in New Delhi on December 16, 2012 triggering nationwide outrage.

Speculation was rife that the divorce petition could be yet another "ploy" on part of the accused to delay execution of the death sentence scheduled on 20 December.

The accused were slapped with murder charges upon the death of the victim at a Singapore hospital where she breathed her last after battling for life for over a fortnight.