Wave of joy in Nirbhaya's village after SC order, grandfather demands immediate hanging of convicts

Residents of the native village of ‘Nirbhaya’ on Monday demanded immediate hanging of those convicted of her rape and murder, as a wave of happiness erupted after the Supreme Court dismissed review pleas filed by three out of the four convicts against death penalty in the sensational December 16, 2012 case.

As the news of the Supreme Court verdict reached there, villagers of Medawara Kalan in Ballia district distributed sweets and offered a special worship in the village temple by offering milk to the deity.

Nirbhaya’s grandfather Lalji Singh said if the culprits were hanged to death by now, then such monstrous incidents would not have happened, referring to repeated cases of rapes in various parts of the country.

“The convicts must be immediately hanged to death,” he said.

The 23-year-old paramedic student was gangraped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in South Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road.

She succumbed to injuries on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

The apex court on Monday rejected the review pleas filed by Mukesh (29), Pawan Gupta (22) and Vinay Sharma (23), saying no grounds have been made out by them for review of the verdict.

The fourth death row convict, Akshay Kumar Singh (31), has not filed a review petition against the apex court’s May 5, 2017 judgement.

One of the accused in the case, Ram Singh, has died already, after allegedly committing suicide in the Tihar Jail in the national capital.