Seven Years After Nirbhaya Died, 4 Convicts To Hang On January 22 At 7 am

Akshay Thakur Singh, Mukesh, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma were found guilty in the 2012 gang-rape, torture and killing of a young medical student in Delhi.

The four convicts sentenced to death in the Nirbhaya case will hang at 7 am on January 22, a Delhi court said today, issuing a death warrant.

"This judgement will reinforce people's faith in the judiciary. My daughter will get justice," said Nirbhaya's mother, who had petitioned the court for a death warrant, saying she had waited seven years for justice.

Last month, the Supreme Court dismissed the last review petition in the case, filed by Akshay Singh. Nirbhaya's parents then asked a lower court to issue a death warrant but the judge had deferred a decision until today.

"I have been running from pillar to post for one year," Nirbhaya's mother had wept at the time before the judge, who consoled her saying he was bound by the law.

Besides the four convicts, two more were accused in the rape and murder. Ram Singh, the fifth accused, committed suicide and a juvenile was released after three years in a reform home.

The 23-year-old paramedic student was gang-raped and tortured with an iron rod on a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012, before being dumped on a road, naked and bleeding. She died on December 29 amid street protests across the country.

Dismissing the review petition of the convict, the Supreme Court had said: "Review petition is not re-hearing of the appeal over and over again." The three-judge bench had pointed at similar arguments considered for petitions of the three other convicts.

Arguing against a review, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had said: "There are certain crimes where 'humanity cries' and this case is one of them. On that fateful day, God also must have held His head in shame for two reasons. First, for not being able to save the innocent girl, and second, for having created these five monsters."

The convicts are in Delhi's Tihar jail, where officials had started preparing for the hangings weeks ago.