The four death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case were hanged to death at 5:30 am on Friday.
After the hanging of four death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case at 5:30 am on Friday following a long drawn out legal battle that went on for 7 years, political leaders and women's right activists echoed the sentiment of the nation as they breathed a sigh of relief on justice being served.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to hail the development and said that 'justice has prevailed'.
"Justice has prevailed. It is of utmost importance to ensure dignity and safety of women," he said.
Modi also added that "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 an emphasis on equality and opportunity."
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that even though justice was delivered, 'there are a lot of loopholes' in the system that need to be fixed, to ensure speedy trial of rape accused.
'It took 7 yrs for justice to be delivered. Today, we've to take a pledge that a similar incident does not happen again. We've seen how the convicts manipulated the law until recently. There are a lot of loopholes in our system, we need to improve the system,' Kejriwal said.
Weighing in on the incident, Union Minister Smriti Irani said, "Justice was delayed but it has finally been delivered. This is a message to all those who think they can commit crimes against women and escape the law."
The Chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women, Swati Maliwal said that with justice being delivered, Nirbhaya's soul must have found peace. "It's a historic day, Nirbhaya got justice after over 7 years, her soul must have found peace today. Country has given a strong message to rapists that if you commit this crime you will be hanged," she said.
Rekha Sharma, Chairperson of National Commission for Women (NCW), said that the hanging of the rapists set an example, 'now people know that they will be punished', she said.
A trial court in Delhi had on March 5 issued fresh death warrants for Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31), ordering their execution on March 20 at 5.30 am.
On Thursday evening, three of them -- Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma -- moved the Delhi High Court challenging the trial court order that declined to stay their execution.
The convicts were closely monitored by the Tihar Jail authorities and orders had been issued to keep an eye on them so that they don't create any sort of distraction to delay the execution.
This came shortly after the Supreme Court refused to entertain the plea of the fourth convict Mukesh Singh, challenging the Delhi High Court order which rejected his claim that he was not in the city when at the time of crime on December 16, 2012.
The 23-year-old psychotherapy student, dubbed by media as 'Nirbhaya', was gang-raped and brutalised on a moving bus on December 16, 2012, before being dumped on the road. She was airlifted to Singapore where she died on December 29, 2012.
Six people, including a juvenile, were arrested for the crime. The juvenile was released after serving a three-year term at a juvenile home, one convict allegedly committed suicide in jail while four others were sentenced to death.
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