6 Years after Nirbhaya, victim's mother unhappy over delay in law and order

New Delhi, Dec 16: Six years after the brutal gang rape of 23-year-old Nirbhaya in New Delhi, Asha Devi, the mother of the 2012 gang rape victim referred to as 'Nirbhaya', expressing her disappointment over the failure of law and order situation in the country and also requested all the parents to not deprive their girls of education, adding that the girls should never consider themselves weak.

Speaking to ANI on the sixth anniversary of the 'Nirbhaya' gang rape case, Devi said, "Culprits in a criminal case like this are still alive. It's a failure of law and order situation. We want to tell the girls everywhere to not consider themselves weak and request parents to not deprive their girls of education."

In May last year, Supreme court upheld the 2013 death penalty verdicts for four of the six assailants who gang-raped and tortured a 23-year-old college student in New Delhi in December 2012, saying they did not deserve leniency due to "brutal, barbaric and diabolical" conduct.

The brutal attack prompted widespread protests throughout the country, sparked a new debate about women's safety in India and resulted in strict changes to the country's rape laws which now allows for the death penalty in some rape cases.

The victim, who was severely assaulted, was thrown out on the road along with her male friend. She succumbed to injuries at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore on December 29, where she had been airlifted for medical treatment.

What happened on December 16, 2012?

The 23-year-old paramedic student was raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in South Delhi by five men and a juvenile. Six men, including a juvenile, beat Nirbhaya's friend unconscious before raping and torturing her with an iron bar as the bus drove loops through the city. She was dumped on the streets 45 minutes later with horrific internal injuries and died 13 days later in a Singapore hospital.

What changes came of it?

In the aftermath of the crime, a panel headed by a former chief justice was tasked with reviewing laws on sexual violence. The panel recommended a minimum sentence of 20 years for gang-rape, with the possibility of life imprisonment. It also called for tougher punishments for a range of sexual crimes common across India, including voyeurism, stalking and acid attacks. The government responded by introducing tougher punishments for rapists, including the death penalty for repeat offenders.

India has long exercised the death penalty as punishment for serious crimes; its last execution was in 2015 of Yakub Memon for his role in the 1993 terrorist bombings in Mumbai.