Finally justice was served. After seven years long battle, all four accused of Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case were hanged today at the Tihar jail. The pre-dawn execution took place less than two hours after the Supreme Court dismissed the final petition of the convicts.
Here the question that arises is why did the court take so long to deliver justice? “Undoubtedly, it was delayed but we got justice. Today, she got justice and girls of the country got justice. I want to thank everyone, the judiciary, the government and every citizen for this,” answered Asha Devi mother of the victim.
The crime took place on December 16, 2012 when a 23-year-old medical student Jyoti Singh later came to be known as ‘Nirbhaya’, boarded a bus in Delhi along with her male friend. Once the woman and her friend boarded the bus, they were assaulted by a group of six people.
She was assaulted and tortured with an iron rod before being dumped for dead, naked, bleeding and her intestines spilling out. Nirbhaya and her friend had been dumped from the bus naked on the street. However, she survived long enough to identify her attackers, but died a few days later in a Singapore hospital.
Soon after the news came out, the entire country especially in the national capital was shaken by the act and the crime then grabbed the headlines all over. Thousands of people took to the streets demanding justice for the victim. The outrage over her death led to the passage of tough laws against sexual violence including death penalty for rape in some cases.
There were totally six accused out of which one (Ram Singh) was found dead in his jail cell and also one who was minor was freed after three years in a reform home.
According to a report, all the four accused Mukesh Singh (32) Akshay Thakur (31), Vinay Sharma (26) and Pawan Gupta (25) were hanged at Tihar Jail where they spent the last few hours in isolation in separate cells barely eating or drinking. They hardly slept and refused the last meal or had any last wish. Ironically, one of them begged for his life as he was being led to the gallows.
Soon after the accused were hanged, Asha Devi mother of 2012 Delhi gang rape victim said, “As soon as I returned home from the Supreme Court, I hugged the picture of my daughter and said today you will get justice.”
“Justice has prevailed,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted after all the convicts were hanged. Beside Modi, many other major personalities tweeted about the same –“Finally justice delivered,” they exclaimed.
Justice has prevailed.
It is of utmost importance to ensure dignity and safety of women.
Our Nari Shakti has excelled in every field. Together, we have to build a nation where the focus is on women empowerment, where there is emphasis on equality and opportunity.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 20, 2020
Today all the accused were hanged, it did not create much of an impact neither on the people nor on the accused people who are still committing such heinous crimes.
When AV contacted Abbas Kazmi on this, he said, “I’m among those group of lawyers who are totally against of capital sentence. Secondly, it should not be delayed so long. So keeping in mind, the conscience of the society, especially with regards to victim, the delay is highly condemnable.”
“The matter was pending with the Supreme Court, so it must have gone through the entire procedure which must have taken long. The initial stage could have gone through the fast track. But SC as you know, there is no special fast track court as far as SC is concerned. Fast track courts are at the trail level mostly,” he added.
If we go by the statistics, then every hour in every corner around the globe, women are either being raped, molested or killed by people. Have you all ever given it a thought why such crimes against women are rising? Why is the conviction rate poor? Why not the government is using fast tracks courts in such crimes?
After all the accused were hanged on Friday, rights group Amnesty International India said that the death penalty is never the solution towards ending violence against women, calling the execution of the four Nirbhaya case convicts a “dark stain” on India’s human rights record.
Since August 2015, India had not executed anyone and it is unfortunate that four men were executed in the name of tackling violence against women. All too often lawmakers in India hold up the death penalty as a symbol of their resolve to tackle crime.
Avinash Kumar, Executive Director, Amnesty International India said, “The death penalty is never the solution and today’s resumption of executions adds another dark stain to India’s human rights record. Indian courts have repeatedly found it to be applied arbitrarily and inconsistently. Far-reaching procedural and institutional reforms are the need of the hour”
The government has asked the Supreme Court to make it harder for convicts in such brutal crimes to use legal loopholes to stall their sentence. However with the crimes against women rising, it doesn’t seem what the government has asked for?
