Kolkata: On the sixth anniversary of the Nirbhaya gang rape case, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Sunday urged people to make the country a better place for women. Banerjee took to Twitter to ask people to stop violence against women.
"Today is the sixth anniversary of the horrific Delhi Nirbhaya case. The incident shook the country. As a society, we must make this country a better place for women. Say no to violence against women," she tweeted.
A 23-year-old paramedic student was gang raped on December 16, 2012 in a moving bus in Delhi and thrown out of the vehicle along with her male friend. She later died in a hospital in Singapore.
The incident had triggered outrage and protests across the country. She subsequently came to be known as 'Nirbhaya', the fearless. All the six accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder.
While one of the accused hanged himself in prison, another accused, a juvenile then, was given the maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment in a reform facility. The other four were found guilty of rape and murder and later sentenced to death. The incident of gang rape was widely condemned.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday remembered Nirbhaya, who was gang-raped on December 16, 2012 in a moving bus in Delhi and later died in hospital, and pledged to ensure a strong struggle for women safety "despite all hurdles". "Six years ago on this day one of the most brutal and worst crime was committed in the history of Delhi. "Only way to keep the brave Nirbhaya alive in our minds is to ensure a strong struggle for women safety despite all hurdles in our way," Kejriwal said on Twitter.
Last Thursday the Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking directions for immediate execution of the four death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, saying, "you want us to go around Delhi and execute these people?". "What kind of prayer you are making?," a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta told the petitioner. "You are making the court a joke," it said.
On July 9, the apex court dismissed the pleas of three convicts – Mukesh (31), Pawan Gupta (24) and Vinay Sharma (25) -- seeking review of its 2017 judgement upholding the capital punishment awarded to them by the Delhi High Court and the trial court in the case. The fourth death row convict, Akshay Kumar Singh (33), has not filed a review plea in the apex court.