E-Paper
Delay in hanging of 2016 rape case convicts figures in Rajya Sabha
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
The delay in hanging of the convicts in the December 16, 2012, gang-rape case figured in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, with the Aam Aadmi Party demanding the intervention of the President or the chief justice of India (CJI) in the matter.
Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said the matter was “very sensitive and serious” and the court judgement must be implemented at the earliest.
Raising the issue during the morning session, AAP MP Sanjay Singh said despite the punishment awarded to the four convicts, their hanging was being postponed. He said political remarks were being made regarding the case.
Singh said while the entire country was on the streets following the gang rape in 2012, the culprits have been able to get a new date every time to delay the execution.
“Tarikh per Tarikh (date after date),” Singh said, in an apparent reference to a famous dialogue of the film ‘Damini’ revolving around a rape trial.
TMC and Congress MPs, who were raising slogans against the citizenship amendment law, NRC and NPR, stopped sloganeering as the issue was discussed.
Observing that people were agitated and concerned over the delay in execution of the court order, Chairman Naidu said those in the system must fulfill their responsibilities.
He said the convicts were given all legal opportunities. “We cannot allow such things to go on in the country...
People are getting restive...It must be seen that judgement is implemented at the earliest,” he said.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar blamed the Delhi government for the delay in executing the punishment.
“The appeal of the convicts was rejected by the Supreme Court in 2017 but jail authorities took more than a year to complete the process for informing the convicts. The delay is due to the state government,” Javadekar said in the Rajya Sabha.
The minister’s comment came on Sanjay Singh’s request for intervention of the President and the Supreme Court for speedy execution of the death sentence.
The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as ‘Nirbhaya’ (fearless), was gangraped and savagely assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.
The brutality of the crime shook the nation, leading to country-wide protests and a change in India’s rape laws.
