Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) were finally made to pay for the gruesome crime they committed by facing the death sentence of the Supreme Court. All four criminals were hanged to death on 20th March 2020 in Delhi’s Tihar jail at 5:30 am following the Supreme Court’s verdict. After a much long wait, Nirbhaya’s soul today will finally rest in peace.
On December 16In 2012, nearly seven years back, a 23-year-old medical student was brutally gang-raped and assaulted with an iron rod by six men on a moving bus. She was then thrown out of the bus only to be found lying naked on the road, bleeding and her intestines spilling out. She along with her male friend, who too had been attacked were then rushed to the hospital by the police authorities.
Her internal injuries were so brutal that she could battle with them only for a few days in which she identified the rapists. Responding to her increasing critical condition, she was shifted to a hospital in Singapore where she breathed her last breath.
This ghastly incident triggered nationwide angry protests, with Delhi being the epicentre. After an intensive hunt of the attackers, the Delhi Police managed to arrest all 6 of them by December 22, 2012.
Out of the six who were arrested and locked in Tihar Jail, Ram Singh committed suicide. He was found dead in his cell. The other, a juvenile whose name remains to be kept hidden for legal reasons, was freed after being kept in a reform facility for three years. He too was proved guilty. He was 17 years old and very close to crossing the juvenile mark when the crime was committed. Now he is an adult and free.
On 20th March 2020 when all the legal routes to escape death shut and after many attempts of the convicts at using the laws’ loopholes to the utmost benefit, they were finally hanged to death. Their attempt at escaping execution lasted until the very end when they filed a petition seeking stays on their execution.
The Supreme Court, however, refused all the pleas and petitions continuing with the decision to carry out the execution. The convicts slept for a few hours at night and got a wake-up call at 3:30 am. After serving breakfast and carrying out the medical tests to ensure all were fit to before hanging, they were carried to the phasi kothi for hanging. With faces covered with cotton cloth, rope around the neck and nose tightened, all four were executed and announced dead.
Aashi Devi, Nirbhaya’s mother breathed a sigh of relief after years and celebrated the victory of justice delivered to her daughter. “We all have waited so long for this day. Today is a new dawn for daughters of India. The beasts have been hanged,” said Asha Devi.
The entire nation welcomes this much-awaited decision with great pleasure.
