'Praying to God justice is delivered to Nirbhaya. Her mother has been struggling for 6 years'

The nation is once again talking about the brutal gang rape and murder of 23-year-old student Nirbhaya in the national capital in December 2012.

New Delhi, July 9: The nation is once again talking about the brutal gang rape and murder of 23-year-old student Nirbhaya in the national capital in December 2012, as the Supreme Court is all set to pronounce its verdict on the review pleas of three out of the four convicts sent to the death row in the case that united India against crimes against women.

While many human rights activists have opposed death penalty for the accused in the case, the victim's parents, especially her mother, friends and others are demanding that justice will be delivered only when the culprits will be hanged to death.

Tweeting about the case, Swati Maliwal, chairperson, Delhi Commission for Women, wrote, "Praying to God that today justice is delivered to Nirbhaya. Her mother has been struggling for past 6 years! Justice delayed is justice denied. Every minute of delay encourages rapists across and is like a slap for all Nirbhayas in the country."

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan is expected to deliver its judgement on the pleas of Mukesh (29), Pawan Gupta (22) and Vinay Sharma (23).

The four death row convict, Akshay Kumar Singh (31), has not filed a review petition against the apex court's May 5, 2017 judgement.

The apex court in its 2017 verdict had upheld the capital punishment awarded to them by the Delhi High Court and the trial court in the case of gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic student on December 16, 2012 in the national capital.

She was gang raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in South Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road. She succumbed to her injuries on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

One of the accused in the case, Ram Singh, had allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar jail in Delhi. A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a juvenile justice board. He was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term.

In its judgement, the Supreme Court had said that the "brutal, barbaric and diabolic nature" of the crime could create a "tsunami of shock" to destroy a civilised society.

There is also wide-scale fear that the culprits might be spared the death penalty.

The case is hogging the limelight once again when the nation is witnessing unprecedented rise in rape cases. Moreover, as a nation, we are also fighting rapes and murders of minor girls on a daily basis.

In fact, rape has become a political issue. While the opposition parties have blamed the ruling regime for failing to curtail growing number of rape cases, several leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Jammu and Kashmir had earlier joined a rally to support the accused of the brutal Kathua rape and murder case a few months ago.