The four men convicted of the gang rape and murder of a Delhi woman on December 16th, 2012, were hanged in the darkness of pre-dawn on March 20th, 2020.
Akshay Thakur, 31, Pawan Gupta, 25, Vinay Sharma, 26, and Mukesh Singh, 32 were hanged to death in Delhi’s Tihar Jail sharp at 5:30 am. Pawan Jallad, the hangman from Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district, was tasked with the duty to hang the four convicts.
Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi expressed satisfaction that justice was finally delivered. “This is the moment of justice for the whole country. This is the win of all women in the country.”
She added, “I returned from the Supreme Court, hugged my daughter’s photograph and told her ‘Today, justice has been delivered’. Our fight for the security of daughters across the country will continue.”
An emotional Asha Devi further mentioned that she dedicates the day – March 20 – to all the women in the country who fought for Nirbhaya.
As the clock struck 5.30 am, the crowd assembled outside the Jail burst into celebration and even distributed sweets.
The bodies of the convicts have been taken to the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital for post-mortem examinations. The autopsy likely to completed by 12:30 pm.
The Nirbhaya gang-rape incident occurred on December 16th, 2012 in Munirka in South Delhi. A 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern was beaten, gang-raped, and tortured in a government bus by six men. Eleven days after the assault, she was transferred to a hospital in Singapore but succumbed to her injuries two days later.
All the accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. One of the accused, Ram Singh, died in police custody from possible suicide in the Tihar Jail.
On September 10th, 2013, the four remaining adult defendants – Mukesh, Vinay, Pawan and Akshay Thakur – were found guilty of rape and murder and three days later were sentenced to death by hanging. The Delhi High Court as well as Supreme Court have upheld the guilty verdict and the death sentences.
The juvenile was convicted of rape and murder and was sentenced to three years of imprisonment in a reform facility.
The brutal gang-rape and murder of the young physiotherapy intern led to nationwide protests. The movement forced the government to set up a committee to review the laws on rape and crime against women.
Photo credit: NDTV
