Hand over rapists to people, justice will be done: Nirbhaya's grandfather

Ballia (UP), Dec 02: The grandfather of Delhi gang rape-murder victim Nirbhaya on Monday said those guilty of such crimes should be "handed over" to the people to do "justice".

In an apparent reaction to the recent rape and murder of the Hyderabad woman on her way home from work, he suggested that such cases will come down if those arrested are shot dead in the street.

His remarks come on a day when some parliamentarians expressed similar sentiments. In the Rajya Sabha, Samajwadi Party's Jaya Bachchan said rapists should be "brought out in public and lynched."

Barring a juvenile, those involved in the 2012 Nirbhaya rape and murder case were sentenced to death but the execution is yet to take place.

Nirbhaya's grandfather blamed this for such crimes being repeated. He said it has been seven years since his granddaughter's case, but have yet not been hanged and are still in jail. "Had they been given capital punishment it would have worked as a deterrent and people would have feared committing such a heinous crime," he told reporters.

He said if a new law has to be brought in it should be that rape accused, when arrested, is handed over to the people and they will do justice. The day a rapist is shot dead at a road-crossing, rape cases will come down on their own, he said. He also called for changes in the judicial process so that rape cases are not left pending in the court for long.