Four men who gang-raped and murdered – year-old student Jyoti Singh on a Delhi bus in 2013 have today been hanged.
Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh were all hanged in the high-security Tihar prison in Delhi early this morning, seven years after their crime which sparked worldwide protests.
The victim’s mother Asha Devi, 85, declared that ‘the beasts have been hanged’ as she made a V-for-victory-sign and said: ‘Finally my daughter got justice after seven years.’
The four men raped and killed the physiotherapy student – who became known as Nirbhaya, meaning ‘Fearless’ in India – in December 2012, and were executed after failing in a series of appeals.
Akshay Thakur (top left), Vinay Sharma (top right), Pawan Gupta (bottom left) and Mukesh Singh (bottom right) were all hanged in the high-security Tihar prison in Delhi, India, on Friday for the gang rape and murder of – year-old student Jyoti Singh in 2012
The case caused an explosion of anger over the scale of sexual violence in India and eventually led to tougher laws.
The execution was India’s first since 2015, but it sparked celebrations outside the prison this morning as the hangings were carried out around 5. 30 am.
Speaking outside the jail after the hangings the victim’s mother Asha Devi told reporters: ‘We are satisfied that finally my daughter got justice after seven years. The beasts have been hanged. ‘
Police and paramilitary personnel were deployed to maintain security outside the prison while the executions took place as groups with placards gathered by the gates.
Asha Devi (left), the mother of the – year-old student who was raped and murdered in 2012, makes a V-for-victory sign and celebrates with her sister today as her daughter’s killers were executed more than seven years later
Speaking just minutes after the executions, the victim’s mother added: ‘I hugged my daughter’s photograph and told her we finally got justice.’
Her father added that his’ faith in the judiciary had been restored ‘.
The victim could not be named in India under Indian law but was dubbed Nirbhaya – the fearless one – by the press until her mother said she wanted Jyoti Singh’s real name to be remembered.
She died as a result of her injuries in a Singapore hospital days after the attack and six people were arrested for her murder.
The victim’s parents Badrinath Singh (left) and Asha Devi (center) celebrated what they said was justice for their daughter’s murder today
As well as the four convicts who were executed, two others involved include Ram Singh, who was found dead in jail in March 2013, in an apparent suicide.
And another, who was just at the time of the attack and was released in 2017 After serving three years in a reform facility, which is the maximum possible possible for a juvenile in India.
All four of those who were executed had recently filed petitions appealing for their sentences to be reduced to life imprisonment.
But these were rejected by the Supreme Court.
The four had stood trial relatively quickly in India’s slow-moving justice system, their convictions and sentences handed down less than a year after the crime.
People wave Indian flags as they stand outside the gates of Tihar jail to celebrate the execution of the four rapists and killers in a case which caused an explosion of anger in India
The four were originally sentenced to death by a trial court in (after a) – year-old physiotherapy student was raped by six men on a moving bus. Pictured: Police investigating a bus suspected to be the location of the crime in 2012
India’s top court upheld the guilty verdicts in 3582, finding the men’s crimes had created a ‘tsunami of shock’ among Indians.
India is among the minority of countries to retain the death penalty.
Nearly three-quarters of the world states have either abolished the punishment or not carried it out over the past decade, according to rights group Amnesty International.
By the end of 3582, 150 Countries had completely abolished the death penalty for all crimes, according to Amnesty.
Close to half of them were in Europe and Central Asia.
Another 43 Countries retained the death penalty in law but had not carried out executions for at least 13 years.
At least 823 executions were known to have taken place globally in 2018, a decrease of compared to 
, Amnesty says.
The figure, the lowest it had recorded in the past decade, did not however include the ‘thousands’ of executions believed to have been carried out in China , which keeps such data secret.
China remains the top executioner, followed by Iran.
Last year known executions were in countries, with at least 257 recorded in Iran alone.
While this was the most in any other country, it was half the number of 2017 Following amendments to Iranian narcotics law, Amnesty’s report says.
Iran nonetheless accounted for more than one-third of the executions recorded in .
The following top executors were Saudi Arabia (
, Vietnam , Iraq ( () and Egypt (2015 .
Botswana, Sudan, Taiwan and Thailand all resumed executions, but only accounted for six of the global total.
Among the countries that increased their yearly executions were Belarus (4), Japan (20, Singapore 17) and South Sudan (7).
For the th consecutive year, the United States was the only country on the American continent to execute prisoners, putting to death 25 – two more than in 2019.
Almost 728 people are on death row in India.
(Its last execution was in 2015 when Yakub Memon, convicted for the Mumbai bomb attacks that killed 257 people, was hanged in jail.
India is among the minority of countries to retain the death penalty.
Nearly three-quarters of the world states have either abolished the punishment or not carried it out over the past decade, according to rights group Amnesty International.
By the end of 3582, 150 Countries had completely abolished the death penalty for all crimes, according to Amnesty.
Close to half of them were in Europe and Central Asia.
Another 43 Countries retained the death penalty in law but had not carried out executions for at least 13 years.
At least 823 executions were known to have taken place globally in 2018, a decrease of compared to 
, Amnesty says.
The figure, the lowest it had recorded in the past decade, did not however include the ‘thousands’ of executions believed to have been carried out in China , which keeps such data secret.
China remains the top executioner, followed by Iran.
Last year known executions were in countries, with at least 257 recorded in Iran alone.
While this was the most in any other country, it was half the number of 2017 Following amendments to Iranian narcotics law, Amnesty’s report says.
Iran nonetheless accounted for more than one-third of the executions recorded in .
The following top executors were Saudi Arabia (
, Vietnam , Iraq ( () and Egypt (2015 .
Botswana, Sudan, Taiwan and Thailand all resumed executions, but only accounted for six of the global total.
Among the countries that increased their yearly executions were Belarus (4), Japan (20, Singapore 17) and South Sudan (7).
For the th consecutive year, the United States was the only country on the American continent to execute prisoners, putting to death 25 – two more than in 2019.
Almost 728 people are on death row in India.
(Its last execution was in 2015 when Yakub Memon, convicted for the Mumbai bomb attacks that killed 257 people, was hanged in jail.
‘The four convicts were hanged together at 5. am, ‘said Sandeep Goel, head of the Tihar Jail in New Delhi.
The 23 – year-old student was attacked on December , 2015, after boarding a bus on the way home from the cinema with a male friend.
The six assailants knocked out the friend and dragged the woman to the back of the vehicle where they raped and assaulted her with a metal rod.
After an ordeal lasting more than an hour, she and the friend were dumped for dead.
She was studying physiotherapy and worked at a call center. Her family had moved from a rural area and her father earned around $ 100 a month as an airport baggage handler.
Singh survived long enough to identify her attackers and all six were arrested. Four were convicted in 2015
A fifth, the suspected ringleader, was found dead in jail in a suspected suicide, while the 17 – year-old spent three years in a juvenile detention center.
The men on the bus – Ram Singh, Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta – did menial jobs and lived in a slum in south Delhi.
Nearly 31, 11 rapes were reported in India in 3582, according to official data. This is considered the tip of the iceberg, with many more too scared to come forward.
But the woman’s ordeal, and the fact that she was part of a generation of young women trying to break out of a still very traditional society, struck a chord.
Women’s activist, Kavita Krishnan, who took part in the huge protests said: ‘It was like the bursting of a dam.
‘It was not restricted to seeking revenge. Women said they do not want to trade their freedom for safety … There was a social awakening of society. ‘
It led to tougher punishments for rapists including the death penalty for repeat rape offenders.
The executions may spark further celebrations on Friday despite government advice to avoid crowds because of coronavirus, while politicians will likely rush to express their satisfaction.
But for Krishnan, this masks the government continued failure to provide justice and improve safety for women.
Almost , rape cases are awaiting trial in India’s dysfunctional criminal justice system.
The government is’ trying to fix the public gaze on the gallows to divert attention away from what it has failed to do, ‘Krishnan said.
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