New Delhi, Dec 20 (IANS) Delhi’s lieutenant governor would hold a meeting with various officials on Dec 23 to discuss the issues related to women’s safety in the capital, the city government counsel told the Delhi High Court Friday.
Appearing before a division bench of Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and Justice Manmohan, the counsel said that the lt.governor and the concerned officials in co-ordination with Delhi Legal Services Authority would also discuss the “modalities for disbursement of the rape victims compensation fund”.
The court had earlier asked the government to appraise it how the rape victims compensation fund was utilised. Responding to the court’s query without revealing any detail, the counsel submitted that Rs 57 lakh have been disbursed for the purpose.
After the Dec 16 gang rape case, a Rs.15 crore victim compensation fund was created by the government. The amount was a part of the Rs.1,000-crore Nirbhaya fund for rape victims.
During the hearing on the suo motu PIL relating to the issue of women’s safety in the national capital, advocate Meera Bhatia told the court that the funds were not being used properly and submitted a media report to the court.
Earlier, the court had taken suo motu cognisance in the Dec 16, 2012 Delhi gang rape incident and decided to monitor issues related to women’s safety in the national capital.
A 23-year-old physiotherapy trainee was gang raped by six persons in a moving bus and succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital on Dec 29, 2012.
Out of the six, four – Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Akshay Thakur and Vinay Sharma, were awarded death penalty by a fast track court on Sep 13 for offences including murder and gang rape of the victim.
Proceedings against main accused Ram Singh were abated after he was found dead in his prison cell in March and the juvenile accused in the case was sentenced to three years in reformation home by the juvenile justice board.