New Delhi - Four men convicted in the fatal 2012 gang rape of a
23-year-old woman in a moving bus in New Delhi - a crime that shocked
the world - will hang on January 22, a Delhi court declared on
Tuesday.
Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Singh and Akshay Singh will be
executed at the Indian capital's Tihar Jail, where officials had
reportedly started preparations for the execution a month ago.
Nirbhaya - "fearless" in Hindi - was the name given by the media to
the physiotherapy student, Jyoti Singh, who was assaulted and raped
on a bus on the night of December 16, 2012. She died nearly two weeks
later at a Singapore hospital.
The court issued death warrants following an application by the
parents of the victim to expedite the hanging, saying the Supreme
Court and lower courts have confirmed death sentences in judgements
since 2013.
Additional Sessions Judge Satish Kumar Arora said the hanging of the
four convicts will take place at 7 am (0130 GMT) on January 22,
Nirbhaya's father Badrinath Singh told reporters.
"This judgement will reinforce people's faith in the judiciary. My
daughter will get justice," the victim's mother Asha Devi said,
adding she had waited seven years for justice.
Lawyer AP Singh, who represents convict Akshay Singh, said he will
file a curative petition in the Supreme Court within a day or two,
requesting the top court to look again at the judgement.
Last month, the Supreme Court dismissed the last review petition in
the case, filed by Akshay Singh. The victim's parents had then asked
the lower court to issue a death warrant.
The men accused in the rape and murder were first handed death
sentences by the trial court in September 2013. It was upheld by the
Supreme Court in May 2017.
After their review petitions were rejected in December, the convicts
still have the final legal recourse of filing a curative petition in
the Supreme Court. If that petition is rejected, they can approach
the president of India with a mercy petition to commute the death
sentence.
As the judge pronounced the order, the court-room was packed and
thick with emotion, broadcaster NDTV reported. 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 according to the
broadcaster.
The 2012 crime had sparked mass protests across the country and an
international outcry.
Six men, including one who was a juvenile at the time of the crime,
were accused of brutally gang raping the student and beating a male
friend accompanying her.
Ram Singh, who was the bus driver and one of the perpetrators,
committed suicide in Tihar jail at the beginning of the trial. The
juvenile, was let off in 2015 after three years in a reform home.
Executions are rarely carried out in India - there have been only
four such instances since 2004. Yakub Memon, who was convicted for
financing and providing logistic support for the deadly 1993 Mumbai
bombings - was the last to be hanged - in 2015.
Despite stricter laws and measures to increase security for women
since the Delhi gang rape, a high number of such crimes continue to
be reported.
According to the latest government data available, 33,658 women and
girls were raped in India in 2017. Activists say many more rapes go
unreported.
The criminal justice system also fails to respond adequately, with
the conviction rate in rape cases at 32 per cent in 2017.
A couple of recent cases, one where a young woman was set on fire by
men she accused of rape and later died, and the gang-rape and murder
of a young woman veterinarian in Hyderabad have brought the spotlight
back on cases of sexual assault on women.