About 250 kilometers from Delhi, most villagers of Bhawanipur in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh are discussing only one subject these days. The juvenile from their village who had captured world headlines after being convicted in the infamous December 16 Nirbhaya gangrape case, is due to be released soon.
While it is going to be three years since the horrendous December 16 Delhi gangrape took place, it is also the day when the juvenile convict will be completing his three-year sentence in the case.
Bhawanipur seems to be divided over the three year quantum of punishment awarded to the man who is now 21 years old.
"Our eyes will be on him anyway. If he behaves well, he can stay in the village. Otherwise we will not let him stay in the village. We have no problem with his family. They are innocent. Of course he has brought bad name to the village, even the foreign media has been here in the village. But if he wants to change, we will give him a chance," Village Pradhan Laltesh Yadav said.
"He should return home now. He wasn't that kind of a boy. No one in the village knew what he was upto in Delhi," said another villager.
However, the young men in the village are sceptical about his release. "The young generation will be influenced if he comes back to the village. The local police will also trouble him," villagers said.
The two-room house of the juvenile convict has no doors and only a few utensils to cook. His mother who is bed-ridden for the last three years, is a woman of few words. She retreats into a shell every time she is asked about her eldest son.
With a mentally-ill husband and 7 children, she had sent him to Delhi in search of work. But today, she isn't even sure if she can recognize him anymore
"I really don't know what exactly happened, if he was guilty or not. Whether or not he has done it, he will be punished," his mother said.
The family though, is anxious about his safety if and when he returns to this village. But at the time, while living in extreme poverty, his mother is longing to see her son who is the family's only hope for a better future.
However, back in Delhi, Nirbhaya's mother is feverishly praying that the juvenile does not walk free. Asha Devi and her husband Badri Nath Singh are angry that the youngest culprit in their daughter Jyoti's brutal gangrape and murder is likely to be released just around her third death anniversary.
"Whether he is sent to an NGO or his house, to us he is free. A girl lost her life. He, too, is a convict among the six. He is being released on her death anniversary itself. What good has he done that he does not get any punishment? What is our crime that we lost our daughter and she did not get justice," Asha Devi asked.
"Our concerns are not just on his release. After Nirbhaya, there have been so many cases where the culprits are juveniles. What are you doing to give justice to those girls," Jyoti's father Badri Nath Singh added.
While the government still mulls over the options on what to do with him, this tiny hamlet of Badaun is keeping a close watch.
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