Seven Years After Nirbhaya Died, 4 Convicts To Hang On January 22 At 7 am
New Delhi:
Four men sentenced to death for the gang-rape and murder of a young medical student in Delhi in 2012, in a crime that scarred India and led to radical changes in its laws, will hang at 7 am on January 22, a court declared today, putting out a death warrant. Mukesh Singh, 32, Pawan Gupta, 25, Vinay Sharma, 26, and Akshay Kumar Singh, 31, will be executed at Tihar jail, where officials had reportedly started preparing a month ago.
“This judgement will reinforce people’s faith in the judiciary and empower women. My daughter will get justice,” said Nirbhaya’s mother, who had petitioned for a death warrant, saying she had waited seven years for justice.
Her 23-year-old daughter, who came to be known as “Nirbhaya (fearless)”, died days after she was raped on a moving bus, tortured with an iron rod and dumped on the road, naked and bleeding, on December 16, 2012. She and her friend had boarded the bus from south Delhi after a movie.
It was a crime of staggering brutality that provoked street protests across the country — and even other countries – and became a turning point in many ways.
As the judge pronounced the order, the courtroom was packed and thick with emotion. Nirbhaya’s parents as well as family members of the convicts wept.
The mother of Mukesh Singh, one of the convicts, walked up to Nirbhaya’s mother and begged for forgiveness. “I appeal to you to forgive my son. I am begging for his life,” she said.
The convicts have 14 days to use their final legal options, including a curative petition before the Supreme Court.
Last month, the top court dismissed the last review petition filed by Akshay Kumar Singh. Nirbhaya’s parents then asked a lower court to issue a death warrant but the judge had deferred a decision until today.
“I have been running from pillar to post for one year,” Nirbhaya’s mother had wept at the time before the judge, who consoled her saying he was bound by the law.
Besides the four convicts, two more were accused in the rape and murder. Ram Singh, the fifth accused, committed suicide and a juvenile was released after three years in a reform home.
Arguing against any review of the death sentence, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had said last month: “There are certain crimes where ‘humanity cries’ and this case is one of them. On that fateful day, God also must have held His head in shame for two reasons. First, for not being able to save the innocent girl, and second, for having created these five monsters.”
The convicts are in Delhi’s Tihar jail, where officials had started preparing for the hangings weeks ago.
The execution is expected to take place in Jail 3 of Tihar, where dummy trials have been carried out to test the gallows. Officials say ropes have been brought from Buxar, Bihar, the kind used to hang Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru in 2013
