Nirbhaya rapists' hanged: Riteish Deshmukh calls for 'harsher punishment & fast courts'

Soon after the Nirbhaya convicts' were hanged to death, Bollywood actor Riteish Deshmukh stated harsher punishment to be the only way to instill fear in those who think of such heinous act. The four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case were hanged to death at 5:30 am in Delhi's Tihar jail on Friday, bringing the curtains down on the drama surrounding the execution that saw the death warrants cancelled thrice on various grounds over the last two-and-a-half months.

Taking to Twitter, Riteish emphasized on the need for stringent laws in order to prevent such crimes and stated that "stricter law enforcement, harsher punishment and fast courts for quick justice is the only way to instill fear." 

READ: Nirbhaya Case: 3-judge SC bench dismisses Pawan Gupta's plea against hanging

Four Convicts Hanged

Seven years and three months after, on March 20, the four convicts in the Delhi 2012 rape and murder case were hanged to death in Tihar jail. This was the first time that four men were executed together in Tihar Jail, South Asia's largest prison complex that houses more than 16,000 inmates.

A guard of not less than 10 constable, warders, and two head constables, head warders or an equal number from the prison armed guard, were also present, it states. Meanwhile, hundreds of people had gathered outside the Tihar central jail ahead of the execution on Friday morning to celebrate. 

In a late-night hearing, a bench comprising Justices Manmohan and Sanjeev Narula dismissed the plea saying that it was devoid of merits. While dismissing the plea, the bench said pending pleas of the convicts in various fora is untenable in law as a ground to stay execution.

READ: Nirbhaya gang-rape convicts hanged, declared dead by officials: LIVE Updates

The Nirbhaya Case

A 23-year-old paramedic student Nirbhaya was gang-raped inside a running bus by six persons on December 16, 2012, in Delhi. The victim was severely assaulted and thrown out on the road along with her male friend and succumbed to injuries a few days later.

Out of the six convicts, one reportedly committed suicide in prison, while another, a juvenile, served maximum punishment of three years in a reform home and was set free in 2015. The remaining four rapists were convicted and handed the death penalty by a trial court in 2013, confirmed by the Delhi High Court in March 2014. The Supreme Court upheld the Delhi High Court's verdict in 2017. 

READ: FINALLY: Four convicts hanged to death in Delhi 2012 gangrape and murder case at 5:30 AM

READ: Nirbhaya case: SC dismisses convict's plea, set be hanged at 5.30 am: LIVE Updates