Justice has prevailed: PM Narendra Modi on hanging of Nirbhaya case convicts

‘’Our Nari Shakti has excelled in every field. Together, we have to build a nation where the focus is on women empowerment, where there is emphasis on equality and opportunity,” he said.’’

PM’s tweet came shortly after the four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case – Mukesh Singh, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma – were hanged to death at 5:30 AM at Delhi`s Tihar jail on Friday (March 20, 2020), bringing the curtains down on the drama surrounding the execution that saw the death warrants cancelled thrice on various grounds over the last two-and-a-half months.

The hanging was carried out as per schedule at 5:30 AM after a three-judge Supreme Court bench rejected the final plea by the convicts` lawyer AP Singh to stay their execution in a late-night hearing. Confirming the development, Tihar Director General Sandeep Goel said, “All four convicts (2012 Delhi gang-rape case) were hanged at 5:30 am.’’ 

The four convicts were declared dead by the Jail doctor 30 minutes after hanging.  As per protocol, bodies of convicts who are executed are kept hanging for 30 minutes before being lowered. The bodies of the four Nirbhaya convicts were lowered and checked by a doctor who declared all the four dead. The bodies will now be sent for post-mortem.

In her first reaction, Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi said, “Finally they have been hanged, it was a long struggle. Today we got justice, this day is dedicated to the daughters of the country. I thank the judiciary and the government.”

”Our daughter is no more and won’t return. We started this fight after she left us, this struggle was for her but we will continue this fight in future for our daughters. I hugged my daughter’s picture & said ‘finally you got justice'” she added. 

Asha Devi also flashed a victory sign after the four convicts were hanged at Delhi’s Tihar Jail. As the news broke out, people celebrated and distributed sweets outside Tihar jail where four 2012 Delhi gang-rape case convicts were hanged at 5:30 am today.

The hanging took place less a few hours after the Supreme Court dismissed their final petition. In the hours before that, the convicts had petitioned the Delhi High Court, where their lawyer cited coronavirus for the lack of proper documents with the hurriedly filed appeal.

All four convicts – Akshay Thakur, 31, Pawan Gupta, 25, Vinay Sharma, 26, and Mukesh Singh, 32, – were hanged at Tihar Jail in Delhi, where they had spent the last few hours in isolation. This is the first time in the history of India that four convicts were hanged at the same time.