Nirbhaya Gets Justice after 7 Years, All 4 Death Row Convicts Hanged in Tihar Jail

New Delhi, March 20, 2020:

Nirbhaya gang rape and murder convicts have been finally hanged till death on Friday morning after a delay of seven long years since the 23-year-old woman's death.

Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar, and Mukesh Kumar convicted for Nirbhaya’s gangrape and murder, were hanged to death in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. Director-General of Tihar Jail, Sandeep Goel confirmed that the four convicts had been hanged together at 5.30 AM.

Goel also informed that a doctor examined and declared all the four convicts of the gruesome rape and murder of Nirbhaya dead. The postmortem of the four was also done with in the morning hours.

According to a Tihar Jail official, the convicts had not expressed any 'last wish'. The belongings and money they earned while their stay in the jail will be handed over to their family members.

Today's execution has been hailed by people across India. This is also the first execution case in India since 2015. The four men, Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh were sentenced to death by a trial court in 2013.

In December 2012, the 23-year-old victim and her friend, after watching the movie Life of Pi at a cinema hall in south Delhi’s Saket, had boarded a chartered bus from Munirka Bus Stand at 9 PM when the gangrape took place.

Both of them were thrown out of the bus and locals after spotting them bloodied by the roadside, rushed to the Safdarjung Hospital. She was later flown to Singapore Hospital where she died of the severe injuries after thirteen days. The incident caused outrage among the people of India and led to new anti-rape laws.

Within days of the incident, Delhi police arrested all the six convicts including the driver of the bus – Ram Singh and the juvenile assailant. The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) ruled that the sixth accused who was a minor, would be dealt with differently. The driver later was found dead in jail in March 2013, having apparently taken his own life.

In the last few months, all the four convicts had filed petitions in the Supreme Court in a bid to reduce their sentences to life imprisonment. The top court had however rejected their petitions, leaving the men with no other legal recourse.

Mother of the 23-year-old physiotherapy student, who was dubbed Nirbhaya, meaning the fearless one said that she hugged her daughter's photograph and told her "we finally got justice."

It needs mention here that despite Nirbhaya's case, which woke up the entire nation,  similar violent incidents have continued to make headlines.

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