Will you celebrate convicts’ hanging? Delhi rape victim’s mother responds

After the four convicts in the Delhi 2012 gang-rape and murder of the 23-year-old woman were hanged at Tihar Jail on Friday, her mother said she will appeal to the Supreme Court for guidelines to ensure nobody adopts delay tactics like those in her daughter’s case.

Asha Devi, the victim’s mother, said “justice was delayed but not denied” and dedicated the day to the daughters of the country.

“There is a hearing on March 23. We will appeal to the Supreme Court to lay down guidelines so that the delay tactics used in her case are not repeated in other cases. The process of availing legal remedies by death row convicts should be time-bound,” she said according to news agency ANI.

“In cases of more than one convict, they should be allowed to only file their curative petition and mercy pleas etc together and not separately,” she added.

Watch | ‘Will fight on,’ says victim’s mother after hanging of 2012 Delhi gang rape convicts

She said she struggled for almost eight years and her daughter has got justice.

“It was delayed but we got justice. Today, she got justice and girls of the country got justice. I want to thank everyone - the judiciary, the government, every citizen - for this,” she said while speaking to reporters after the hanging.

The execution of the four convicts will be a message for the entire country and that families will start teaching their sons and use the hanging as an example.

Asha Devi said they will continue to fight for justice for other girls so that they are not subjected to such crimes. She said she hugged the picture of her daughter as soon as the Supreme Court rejected their last petition.

“Our daughter is no more and won’t return. We started this fight after she left us. This struggle was for her but we will continue this fight in future for our daughters,” Asha Devi, who attended almost all hearings in the case all these years, said.

She added she was proud as people know her by her daughter’s name.

“If she would have been here today, then I would have been known as a doctor’s mother, but now I am known as her mother... My dharma as a mother has been fulfilled today,” said Asha Devi.

Asked whether she is planning to celebrate, she said, “We have not thought anything like this.”

The four convicts in the Delhi 2012 gang rape and murder case were hanged to death at 5:30am in Delhi’s Tihar jail after the Supreme Court rejected the final plea by their lawyer AP Singh to stay their execution in a late-night hearing on Thursday.

The four men, along with two others and a juvenile, had raped and brutally tortured the paramedic student on a moving bus in south Delhi on the night of December 16, 2012.

Ram Singh, one of the accused, committed suicide in March 2013 and the juvenile was released after serving three years in a correctional home.

The victim died after battling for life at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital and later at a Singapore hospital.

The crime had created an uproar across the country, especially in Delhi, as thousands took to the streets demanding justice for the victim. The outrage over her death led to the passage of tough laws against sexual violence, including the death penalty for rape in some cases.