Nirbhaya case convicts hanged in Tihar jail

Four men convicted in the 'Nirbhaya' case were sent to the gallows on Friday, two hours after the Supreme Court binned their last-ditch effort to delay the execution in an unprecedented early morning hearing.

Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) were hanged in Tihar Jail at 5:30 AM, seven years after the gruesome incident in which they gang-raped a 23-year-old girl, who succumbed to her injuries later, on a moving bus in south Delhi.

This is the first time in Tihar Jail's history that four convicts were simultaneously executed. The previous execution in Tihar was that of Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru in February 2013 and the last in the country was that of 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case convict Yakub Memon in July 2015.

Tihar Jail Director General Sandeep Goel said a mandatory examination by doctors half-an-hour later of the execution confirmed the deaths of the convicts. Their death sentences were deferred thrice since January as they had not exhausted all their legal remedies.

Also read — Nirbhaya case timeline: Here's how events unfolded over the years

The bodies were sent to a post-mortem at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital and later handed over to the relatives of the convicts. Akshay's body will be taken to his village at Aurangabad in Bihar while family members of Mukesh will take his body to Rajasthan. The bodies of Vinay and Pawan will be taken to their houses at Ravidas Camp in south Delhi.

"As soon as I returned from Supreme Court, I hugged the picture of my daughter and said today you got justice...justice was delayed but not denied...This day is dedicated to the daughters of the country," Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi said while her father Badrinath said March 20 should be observed as 'Nirbhaya Nyay Diwas' (Day of Justice).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, "Justice has prevailed. It is of utmost importance to ensure the dignity and safety of women. Our Nari Shakti (woman power) 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."

Outside Tihar jail premises, a large number of people had gathered from 3 AM. As the clock struck 5:30 AM, there was a loud cheer among the crowd and some of them even distributed sweets while some others carrying the national flag shouting slogans of 'Long Live Nirbhaya' and 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'.

Earlier in the morning, the Supreme Court held an unprecedented sitting at 2:30 AM after the convicts approached it seeking a stay on the conviction. However, the apex court did not heed to the plea. Late Thursday night, Delhi High Court also had refused to intervene in the case.

Delhi Police had filed the chargesheet in the case on January 3, 2013 and a local court had sentenced them to death on September 13, 2013. While the Delhi High Court confirmed the death sentence next year, the appeal by convicts were rejected by Supreme Court in 2017.