As it wasn't easy for Nirbhaya to breathe and to survive for the few days that she did manage to live after she was brutally gang-raped in a moving bus in Delhi on a cold winter night by six men, it was certainly not easy for her convicts this morning when all their appeals were put to rest and they were told that they will be hanged. Well, the rapists rightly deserved so!
The four convicts were hanged during the wee hours today in New Delhi. None of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case had expressed their last wish and they did not decide their will.
They earned some money while they were in prison and it will be handed over, along with their belongings to their respective families.
Convicts spent last few hours in isolation
The four convicts in the Nirbhaya case spent a restless night at Delhi's Tihar Jail yesterday before their hanging. Jail officials stated that their last few hours were spent in isolation, in separate cells.
Akshay Thakur, 31, Pawan Gupta, 25, Vinay Sharma, 26, and Mukesh Singh, 32, were hanged at 5:30 this morning. Nirbhaya's family got closure finally after seven years of fight. The young medical student who was gang-raped and tortured on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012 was India's worst narrated rape case that shook the entire nation. When Nirbhaya had reached the hospital on that unfateful night; even the doctors had stated that this is by far the most brutal rape case they have attended to.
Yesterday, Vinay's mother was all worn out and was angry as she asked that will she be able to feed her son his favorite food of puri, sabzi, and kachori. She had told a TV correspondent that the jail authorities never allowed her to take food for her son, but can they allow his favorite food one last time as he was scheduled to be hanged the next day?
The execution took place in less than two hours after the Supreme Court dismissed all their pleas. It should be noted that the four convicts had filed several pleas and had even moved the International Court of Justice.
Officials at the Tihar Jail stated that the convicts refused to eat. They did not bathe and they refused to sleep the previous night.
Tihar Jail was under lockdown since last evening, and officers stated normally convicts sleep when they are supposed to be hung but in this case, it was different.
After whatever sleep they got; they were woken up at 3:30 am by the jail authorities and the convicts realised that they have no way out now and no pleas and petitions will work. They repaid for what they did, finally.
One of the convicts, Vinay Kumar, had reportedly hurt himself in February inside the jail. After they were executed, their bodies were kept hanging for 30 minutes following which the doctor who saw them declared them dead.
Their bodies were moved to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital for autopsy. A five-member panel will do the post-mortem before they are disposed of as per their religion.
Though, Nirbhaya's father called this day as 'Naya Diwas' (day of justice), adding that their wait was painful and full of agony. While Nirbhaya's mother said that women will feel safer in this country from on and that they will appeal to the Supreme Court to issue guidelines so that no one can take judiciary for granted and employ tactics to delay justice.
The hanging of the convicts has strengthened the faith of millions in India in India's judiciary system with people thanking the judiciary system for what they decided in the Nirbhaya case.
