KOCHI: Fr John Puthuva worked as a counsellor in Tihar Jail from 2012-15. During his tenure, he met many prisoners including the Nirbhaya convicts, Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Thakur. All of them covered their heads as they went for hearings during the trial at a fast-track court in mid 2013.
Fr John would meet them on their return, offer words of consolation and tell them to pray to God for forgiveness. The police constables listened quietly. Later, inmates assaulted Mukesh and he was kept in solitary imprisonment for his safety.
Once, the priest, along with a couple of volunteers went to Ravidas camp, a slum in RK Puram, South Delhi to meet with Mukesh’s family. But they were refused access. However, on another attempt, they were allowed to meet the slum dwellers and the neighbours because they identified themselves as social service workers. “The local people told me that what they did was a horrendous crime,” says Fr John. “They knew the men had to be punished.”
But Fr John, who is now the parish priest of the St George’s Church in Kalady, has reservations about the hanging of Mukesh, Vinay, Pawan and Akshay, which will take place on March 20. “I believe God gives us life, so we have no right to take it away,” he says. “Instead, exemplary punishment should have been given.”