Women across Uttarakhand have hailed the Supreme Court’s ruling, upholding the death sentence awarded to four convicts involving the 2012 Delhi gang rape case by a Delhi fast-track court in 2013 and subsequently maintained by the Delhi High Court in 2014, rejecting the appeal filed by the convicts. Notably, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Singh, Ram Singh and a juvenile were held guilty of gang-raping and murdering a 23-year-old student in the national capital, New Delhi on the night of December 16, 2012.
The ghastly Nirbhaya case sent shock waves across Uttarakhand, in particular, as the case has Dehradun connection. The victim was a student of a Dehradun- based paramedical college before she shifted to Delhi for internship. The aftermath of the heinous crime saw a string of stirs staged by women, youth and students in Dehradun and some other parts of the state with the agitators demanding capital punishment for the accused.
While lauding the SC ruling, Uttarakhand Women Commission secretary Ramindri Mandrawal said that the SC ruling of upholding the lower court verdict in connection with the case would go down in the judicial history as a landmark one. “Nothing short of capital punishment was what the accused of the inhuman crime deserved. We all expected such a judgment and we are happy that things have turned out to be so. It would doubtless go a long way in curbing such crimes against the women in the coming days,” she said. Notably, Mandrawal had participated in several protests and candle marches staged against the crime at the time.
Sushila Baluni, former president of the State Women Commission, echoed the same sentiment, saying that justice has finally been done regarding one of the most heinous crimes against the women in the country. “I hope that the criminals would not dare commit such crimes in future, given the fact that gallows are what awaiting them,” she said.
Sumitra Panwar, a student of Political Science of DAV College in Dehradun, said that Supreme Court’s verdict in the Nirbhaya gang rape case amounted to a triumph of the rule of law. “The judgment must instil fear in the persons inclined to commit such crimes by proving to be a deterrent,” she said.