Fast-track rape cases: December 16 gang-rape victim’s parents

The parents of Nirbhaya, who died at a hospital in Singapore on December 29, 2012, said on Tuesday that rape cases must be fast-tracked. At a gathering at Rajghat on their daughter’s death anniversary, the parents also demanded that punishment should be meted out to rapists at the earliest and that rapists should be executed for the rarest of rare crimes. The SC has stayed the death sentence of the four convicts twice — on March 15, 2014 and July 14, 2014. SC is yet to hand down its decision. On Tuesday, the victim’s parents visited Gandhi Samadhi to remember their daughter. “Today we are demanding three things. First, rapists must be punished at the earliest and should be hanged for the rarest of rare crimes,” they said. “Our second demand is that fast-tracking of cases should not be restricted to the district courts. It should be extended to the SC,” they added. “Third, a Nirbhaya forensics lab should be set up with the government’s Nirbhaya fund. There is no proper forensics lab in India and this delays and denies justice to victims,” said Badrinath, the victim’s father.