‘Justice has prevailed,’ says PM Modi on Nirbhaya convicts’ hanging

PM Narendra Modi (File Photo by Jewel SAMAD / AFP)


Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday morning said, “justice has prevailed” after the hanging of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya case, who got justice today after seven years long trial and tribulations.

PM Modi took to Twitter after the hanging and said, “Justice has prevailed. It is of utmost importance to ensure dignity and safety of women. 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.”

The four men Mukesh Kumar Singh, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Pawan Kumar Gupta convicted  in the brutal gangrape and murder of a Delhi medical student in 2012, were hanged to death at the Tihar Central Jail in Delhi in the wee hours today.

The Delhi court had on March 5 issued death warrant — the fourth one — against the four convicts, ordering their execution at 5.30 am on March 20. The death warrant was issued as the four men had exhausted all the legal remedies available to them.

Earlier, the Delhi court had issued death warrants against the four convicts thrice.

The four convicts in the gangrape case, which triggered massive nationwide outrage in 2012, had explored every legal option one by one to stretch the date of their hanging as much as they can.

A 23-year-old woman physiotherapist, who came to be known as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in south Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road. She succumbed to injuries on December 29 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

All the six accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. One of the accused was a minor and appeared before a juvenile justice court, while another accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail days after the trial began in the case.

The Nirbhaya gangrape and attack was so brutal and gut wrenching that it had outraged the whole country. Thousands of people  hit the street to protest  bringing some changes in the law and security of women.