On this date, March 20, 2020, The four adult convicts were hanged on 20 March 2020 at 5:30 am IST at Tihar Jail, and were declared dead after thirty minutes. They were convicted in the 2012 Delhi gang rape case involved a rape and fatal assault that occurred on 16 December 2012 in Munirka, a neighbourhood in South Delhi. The incident took place when a 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern, was beaten, gang raped, and tortured in a private bus in which she was travelling with her male friend. There were six others in the bus, including the driver, all of whom raped the woman and beat her friend. Eleven days after the assault she was transferred to a hospital in Singapore for emergency treatment but died two days later.

I feel these four men deserved to die for what they did and I am satisfied that the family members of the girl got justice served.

Four men are executed over the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in Delhi that shocked the world

· Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh were all executed

· The four were hanged in the high-security Tihar prison in India's capital on Friday

· They raped and murdered Jyoti Singh, 23, on a bus in 2012, sparking revulsion

By Raven Saunt and Tim Stickings and Milly Vincent For Mailonline

Published: 12:49 AEDT, 20 March 2020 | Updated: 00:49 AEDT, 21 March 2020

Four men who gang-raped and murdered 23-year-old student Jyoti Singh on a Delhi bus in 2012 have today been hanged.

Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh were all hanged in the high-security Tihar prison in Delhi early this morning, seven years after their crime which sparked worldwide protests.

The victim's mother Asha Devi, 51, declared that 'the beasts have been hanged' as she made a V-for-victory-sign and said: 'Finally my daughter got justice after seven years.'

The four men raped and killed the physiotherapy student - who became known as Nirbhaya, meaning 'Fearless' in India - in December 2012, and were executed after failing in a series of appeals.

Akshay Thakur (top left), Vinay Sharma (top right), Pawan Gupta (bottom left) and Mukesh Singh (bottom right) were all hanged in the high-security Tihar prison in Delhi, India, on Friday for the gang rape and murder of 23-year-old student Jyoti Singh in 2012

The case caused an explosion of anger over the scale of sexual violence in India and eventually led to tougher laws.

The execution was India's first since 2015, but it sparked celebrations outside the prison this morning as the hangings were carried out around 5.30am.

Speaking outside the jail after the hangings the victim's mother Asha Devi told reporters: 'We are satisfied that finally my daughter got justice after seven years. The beasts have been hanged.'

Police and paramilitary personnel were deployed to maintain security outside the prison while the executions took place as groups with placards gathered by the gates.

Asha Devi (left), the mother of the 23-year-old student who was raped and murdered in 2012, makes a V-for-victory sign and celebrates with her sister today as her daughter's killers were executed more than seven years later

Speaking just minutes after the executions, the victim's mother added: 'I hugged my daughter's photograph and told her we finally got justice.'

Her father added that his 'faith in the judiciary had been restored'.

The victim could not be named in India under Indian law but was dubbed Nirbhaya - the fearless one - by the press until her mother said she wanted Jyoti Singh's real name to be remembered.

She died as a result of her injuries in a Singapore hospital 12 days after the attack and six people were arrested for her murder.

The victim's parents Badrinath Singh (left) and Asha Devi (centre) celebrated what they said was justice for their daughter's murder today

As well as the four convicts who were executed, two others involved include Ram Singh, who was found dead in jail in March 2013, in an apparent suicide.

And another, who was just 17 at the time of the attack and was released in 2015 after serving three years in a reform facility, which is the maximum term possible for a juvenile in India.

All four of those who were executed had recently filed petitions appealing for their sentences to be reduced to life imprisonment.

But these were rejected by the Supreme Court.

The four had stood trial relatively quickly in India's slow-moving justice system, their convictions and sentences handed down less than a year after the crime.

People wave Indian flags as they stand outside the gates of Tihar jail to celebrate the execution of the four rapists and killers in a case which caused an explosion of anger in India

India's top court upheld the guilty verdicts in 2017, finding the men's crimes had created a 'tsunami of shock' among Indians.

Death Penalty : Executions In India Post-2000 Before Nirbhaya Case
https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/death-penalty-executions-in-india-post-2000-before-nirbhaya-case-154115

India is among dwindling countries with death penalty

India is among the minority of countries to retain the death penalty.

Nearly three-quarters of world's 195 states have either abolished the punishment or not carried it out over the past decade, according to rights group Amnesty International.

By the end of 2018, 106 countries had completely abolished the death penalty for all crimes, according to Amnesty.

Close to half of them were in Europe and Central Asia.

Another 36 countries retained the death penalty in law but had not carried out executions for at least 10 years.

At least 690 executions were known to have taken place globally in 2018, a decrease of 31 percent compared to 2017, Amnesty says.

The figure, the lowest it had recorded in the past decade, did not however include the 'thousands' of executions believed to have been carried out in China, which keeps such data secret.

China remains the top executioner, followed by Iran.

Last year's known executions were in 20 countries, with at least 253 recorded in Iran alone.

While this was the most in any another country, it was half the number of 2017 following amendments to Iran's narcotics law, Amnesty's report says.

Iran nonetheless accounted for more than one-third of the executions recorded in 2018.

The following top executors were Saudi Arabia (149), Vietnam (85), Iraq (52) and Egypt (43).

Botswana, Sudan, Taiwan and Thailand all resumed executions, but only accounted for six of the global total.

Among the countries that increased their yearly executions were Belarus (4), Japan (15), Singapore (13) and South Sudan (7).

For the 10th consecutive year, the United States was the only country on the American continent to execute prisoners, putting to death 25 - two more than in 2017.

Almost 400 people are on death row in India.

Its last execution was in 2015 when Yakub Memon, convicted for the 1993 Mumbai bomb attacks that killed 257 people, was hanged in jail.

'The four convicts were hanged together at 5.30 am,' said Sandeep Goel, head of the Tihar Jail in New Delhi.

The 23-year-old student was attacked on December 16, 2012, after boarding a bus on the way home from the cinema with a male friend.

The six assailants knocked out the friend and dragged the woman to the back of the vehicle where they raped and assaulted her with a metal rod.

After an ordeal lasting more than an hour, she and the friend were dumped for dead.

She was studying physiotherapy and worked at a call centre. Her family had moved from a rural area and her father earned around $100 a month as an airport baggage handler.

Singh survived long enough to identify her attackers and all six were arrested. Four were convicted in 2013.

A fifth, the suspected ringleader, was found dead in jail in a suspected suicide, while the 17-year-old spent three years in a juvenile detention centre.

The men on the bus - Ram Singh, Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta - did menial jobs and lived in a slum in south Delhi.

Nearly 34,000 rapes were reported in India in 2018, according to official data. This is considered the tip of the iceberg, with many more too scared to come forward.

But the woman's ordeal, and the fact that she was part of a generation of young women trying to break out of a still very traditional society, struck a chord.

Women's activist, Kavita Krishnan, who took part in the huge protests said: 'It was like the bursting of a dam.

'It was not restricted to seeking revenge. Women said they do not want to trade their freedom for safety... There was a social awakening of society.'

It led to tougher punishments for rapists including the death penalty for repeat rape offenders.

The executions may spark further celebrations on Friday despite government advice to avoid crowds because of coronavirus, while politicians will likely rush to express their satisfaction.

But for Krishnan, this masks the government's continued failure to provide justice and improve safety for women.

Almost 150,000 rape cases are awaiting trial in India's dysfunctional criminal justice system.

The government is 'trying to fix the public gaze on the gallows to divert attention away from what it has failed to do,' Krishnan said.

INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8133157/Four-men-executed-2012-gang-rape-murder-student-Delhi-shocked-world.html .... ….. https://www.facebook.com/164305410295882/posts/5464597586933278/

CM Yogi Welcomes Nirbhaya Convicts' Hanging, Calls For Creation Of A 'conscious Society'

Politics

UP CM Yogi Adityanath on Friday reacted to the hanging of Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case convicts and called for the creation of conscious society for women

Written By Misha Bhatt | Mumbai | Updated On: March 20, 2020 14:43 IST

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday reacted to the hanging of all four death row convicts of the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case by stating that a new chapter was added to the inspiring pages of justice.

The Chief Minister's Tweet roughly translates as, "Today, a new chapter has been added to the inspiring pages of justice. Today is the day to be committed to the female identity of the Indian public for the protection and respect of women. By imbibing the spirit of a 'strong women-capable society', we must create a conscious society towards women's interests."

READ | PM Modi issues statement on Nirbhaya rapists' hanging, says 'Justice has prevailed'

'Justice has prevailed'-PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday reacted to the hanging of the Nirbhaya rape and murder case convicts and stated that "justice had finally prevailed." All four convicts in the Delhi 2012 rape and murder case were finally hung to death in Tihar jail at 5.30 am after a long-drawn and exhaustive judicial procedure. Responding to their hanging, PM Modi said that ensuring the "dignity and safety of women was of utmost importance." He also remarked that people should focus on building a nation where there is "women empowerment and emphasis on equality and opportunity."

Nirbhaya Convicts Hanged

Seven years and three months after, on March 20 the four convicts in the Delhi 2012 rape and murder case were hanged to death in Tihar jail. This was the first time that four men were executed together in Tihar Jail, South Asia's largest prison complex that houses more than 16,000 inmates.

A guard of not less than 10 constable, wardens, and two head constables, head wardens or an equal number from the prison armed guard, were also present, it states. Meanwhile, hundreds of people had gathered outside the Tihar central jail ahead of the execution on Friday morning to celebrate.

INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.republicworld.com/india-news/politics/cm-yogi-hails-nirbhaya-convicts-hangingcalls-for-creation-of-conscio.html