Delhi 2012 gang-rape case: Justice delayed is justice denied, says Jaya Bachchan

The four convicts were hanged simultaneously inside Tihar Jail number 3 at 5:30am Friday for the Delhi 2012 gang-rape and murder of the young woman.

Rajya Sabha member Jaya Bachchan on Friday questioned the delay in the hanging of the four men convicted of raping and torturing the 23-year-old woman more than seven years ago in Delhi.

The four men were convicted in Tihar Jail for the rape and murder of the young woman on a bus in New Delhi on December 16, 2012, in a crime which brought thousands out on the streets in protest and led to the changing of the law to deal with sex offenders in the country.

“Justice delayed is justice denied. Even today, one person is free. Have his intentions changed today?” she asked.

The lawmaker was referring to the juvenile, also convicted in the case, who was later released in 2015 after he served three years in a correctional home.

The minor was among the six people who gang-raped and fatally assaulted the woman.

Prime accused Ram Singh, the bus driver, committed suicide in 2013. Mukesh Singh, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma were hanged simultaneously inside Tihar Jail number 3 at 5:30am for the Delhi 2012 gang-rape and murder of the young woman.

Before this, the Samajwadi Party leader had said that those accused of rape must be lynched.

She had made the comments in the Upper House after a 26-year-old Hyderabad vet was allegedly raped and killed by four men and her charred body was found in Telangana’s Ranga Reddy district in December last year.

“I think the people now want the government to give a proper answer and a very definite answer. What has happened? How they have tackled it and how far justice has been done to these people?” Jaya Bachchan had asked.

Several, including the woman’s parents and Union ministers, talked about the delay in the hangings but said justice was served.

Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said he wished “this could have been done earlier”.

“Today is also the day to reflect by the judiciary, govt, civil society that should some people convicted for capital punishment be allowed to manipulate the system to delay it for seven years,” Prasad as quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Union minister Smriti Irani also pointed out to the delay.

“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,” Irani said, according to ANI.

Rekha Sharma, the chairperson of National Commission for Women (NCW), too talked about the years it took for the execution to be held.

“An example has been set today but it could have been done earlier. Now people know that they will be punished, you may extend the date but you will get punished,” Sharma said, according to ANI.

The execution of the four convicts brought the curtains down on the drama surrounding the hanging that saw the death warrants cancelled thrice on various grounds over the last two-and-a-half months.

The hanging was carried after a three-judge Supreme Court bench rejected the final plea by the convicts’ lawyer to stay their execution in a late-night hearing on Thursday.