Several people gathered in front the Tihar jail in New Delhi, where the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape case — Pawan Gupta, Akshay Kumar Singh, Mukesh Singh and Vinay Sharma — where hanged until death at 5.30 am on Friday, over seven years after the heinous crime in the national capital shook India.
On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student — dubbed Nirbhaya (fearless) — was brutally gangraped and murdered in a bus, for hours, by five men and a minor, in New Delhi. Her internal organs were severely injured and after days of battle for her life, she finally succumbed on December 29, 2012.
“This was an eight-year ordeal, but Nirbhya got justice... all women and children in India got justice,” said Nirbhaya mother’s Asha Devi after the execution, adding, "Nirbhaya's soul will rest in peace."
Incidentally, two hours before the scheduled execution, the three-judge bench of the Supreme Court dismissed Pawan Kumar's writ petition, challenging the President's rejection of his mercy plea. In a late-night hearing on Thursday, the Delhi High Court heard an urgent plea by the four convicts, which challenged the Patiala Court House's order refusing to stay the execution order. Earlier on Thursday, the Supreme Court also dismissed the curative petition filed by Pawan Gupta claiming juvenility at the time of the crime. The execution was finally upheld after the four convicts exhausted all their legal remedies.
Tihar Director General Sandeep Goel: All four convicts (2012 Delhi gang-rape case) were hanged at 5:30 am. https://t.co/Bqv7RG8DtO pic.twitter.com/JFFdL3reF0
— ANI (@ANI) March 20, 2020
The first death warrant for January 22, 2020 against the four convicts was postponed after one of the convicts filed a mercy plea. In the aftermath of the same, the other convicts also went on to file mercy pleas before the President and curative petitions before the Supreme Court, all of which were rejected.
The date of the hanging was then shifted to February 1, 2020. However, that too was stayed by the Patiala Court House in Delhi just a day before on January 31. The convicts’ lawyer AP Singh had argued against the hanging saying that the legal remedies available were yet to be availed by some of the convicts. On February 17, a trial court issued fresh death warrants against the convicts for March 3 at 6 am.
Pawan Gupta’s curative petition was rejected on March 2; and with that all the convicts exhausted all the legal remedies available to them. However, the execution was delayed yet again after lawyer AP Singh filed a mercy plea before the President for Pawan after his curative petition was rejected.
On March 19, a day before the scheduled hanging, a Delhi court dismissed the three of the convicts’ application to stay the death warrant.
“I will appeal to the Supreme Court to issue guidlelines against such delay tactics by convicts, especially if there are more than one accused," Asha Devi said, speaking to the media outside their house.
Much before all this, even before the death warrants, it was reported in December last year, that preparations had already been going on at Tihar Jail for the execution. Hindustan Times had reported that officials had begun arrangements from the second week of December 2019. They had ordered new ropes from Buxar Jail, made by prisoners there. They reportedly have to be a particular type so that they do not break, or cut the throat while hanging. The services of two hangmen from Uttar Pradesh were reportedly sought, and inspections were carried out such as that of the iron beam, the wooden plank, the lever, the gallows, and a test hanging with a dummy weighing 70-80 kilos.
Back in January too, Tihar Jail had reportedly been preparing for the execution. A hangman from Meerut named Pawan Jallad was at Tihar Jail in Delhi on January 31 to perform the execution. He told news agency ANI that it will be a “great sigh of relief” to him and Nirbhaya’s parents when the convicts are hanged.
Earlier, Asha Devi had also started an online petition on Change.org asking for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and expedite the proceedings in her daughter’s case. She had said that it had been seven years; her patience had run out, and that the culprits should be punished per the Supreme Court’s directive. “As her mother, I need justice. As a nation, we need closure,” Asha had said in the petition.
A few days after the brutal crime on December 16, 2012, the six men who committed the crime were arrested. Among them, the juvenile, who was booked under the Juvenile Justice Act, was tried separately. All four were found guilty, and sentenced to death in 2013. While the minor was sentenced to a maximum of three years imprisonment at a reform facility, the four adults were sentenced to death by a trial court. The death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2017 after it dismissed the convicts’ appeal.
The main accused in the case - Ram Singh - died allegedly by suicide in the Tihar Jail in Delhi in 2013.
"I dedicate this day (March 20) to all the women and children in this country. I started this fight for Nirbhaya, but I will keep the fight on for all women and children in this country," said Asha Devi.
#WATCH Asha Devi, mother of 2012 Delhi gang rape victim says, "As soon as I returned from Supreme Court, I hugged the picture of my daughter and said today you got justice". pic.twitter.com/OKXnS3iwLr
— ANI (@ANI) March 20, 2020