New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday justice has prevailed as his senior cabinet colleagues and women groups welcomed the hanging of the four convicts in Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case.
“Justice has prevailed. It is of utmost importance to ensure dignity and safety of women,” Modi said in a tweet, though there was no direct mention of the Nirbhaya case.
The four men – Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) – convicted for the 2012 gangrape and murder of the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who later came to be known as ‘Nirbhaya’, were hanged at 5.30am inside Tihar Jail here.
“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 PM added.
Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani said the hanging will send out a strong message to criminals that they cannot escape the law.
“I have seen Nirbhaya’s mother’s struggle over the years, though it took time to get justice but it has been done finally. It is also a message to people that you can run away from law but cannot finally avoid it. I’m happy that justice has been done. I greet this day with aplomb that justice has finally been done to Nirbhaya. The hanging is a message for every criminal that one day law will catch up with you,” Irani told reporters.
Expressing satisfaction that ‘a daughter, who underwent so much pain, has got justice’, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said it was time for introspection by judiciary, the government and ensure that capital punishment convicts not be allowed to manipulate system to delay for seven years.
Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal termed the execution as a victory of the country. “This is the victory of whole country. We have to now create a strong system,” Maliwal said in a tweet.
However, Amnesty International India said that the death penalty is never the solution towards ending violence against women. It called the executions a ‘dark stain’ on India’s human rights record.
Agencies