Lamenting the “delay” in carrying out the sentence of December 16 gang-rape and murder incident, Delhi Commission for Women Chief Swati Maliwal today claimed the long winding legal process allowed the criminals to feel they can get away with such heinous crimes.
She urged the prime minister to bring in a legislation wherein at least those convicted of raping minors are given death penalty within six months.
Nirbhaya, a para-medical student, was brutally gang-raped on the intervening night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. The incident took place while she was returning with a friend after watching a movie.
She died 13 days after the incident at a hospital in Singapore.
Of the six men arrested in the case, one of the accused Ram Singh hanged himself in prison in March 2013, while another man, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was convicted in August. Last year, he was released from the correction home after serving the maximum sentence of three years in a reform home.
The other four — Akshay, Vinay Sharma, Pawan and Mukesh — were found guilty and sentenced to death by the Delhi High Court in September 2013. The Supreme Court also upheld the high court’s decision.