Justice delivered: How international media is reporting Nirbhaya convicts hanging

A little over seven years after a 23-year-old medical student was brutally gangraped and murdered on a moving bus in New Delhi, the four convicted killers were hanged at 5.30 am on Friday at Tihar jail.

This came a few hours after the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court dismissed the final petitions of the death-row convicts and their lawyer. They had appealed to the apex court despite their earlier rejected pleas.

Their lawyer had cited coronavirus for the lack of proper documents for a hurriedly-filed appeal.

Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, and Mukesh Singh hardly slept and refused a last meal or any last wish, said officials. One of them begged for his life as he was led to the gallows.

The 2012 gangrape case had then cast a global spotlight on the shocking rates of sexual assault in India. So while the Indian media is going all out and praising the judiciary for setting a precedent by hanging the rapists, its international counterparts from various parts of the world are also reporting the development in a positive light.

Let's have a look at how the international media has been reporting the hanging of the rapists of Nirbhaya:

CNN, a US news portal, wrote: "The four men were convicted in 2013, but three of them appealed their death sentence to India's top court, the Supreme Court. All appeals were denied, including mercy pleas to India's President Ram Nath Kovind.

"The case prompted outrage around the world and in India, where protesters demanded justice for Nirbhaya, a pseudonym given to the student that means "fearless." Under Indian law, victims of certain crimes cannot be named."

The publication, in its detailed report, also mentioned the recent Hyderabad rape case.

"And high-profile rape cases have continued to hit headlines. Last year, four men confessed to the gang rape and murder of a 27-year-old woman, whom they set on fire. The four were shot dead by police in custody after allegedly snatching weapons from police and firing at them while visiting the scene to reconstruct the crime.

"And high-profile rape cases have continued to hit headlines. Last year, four men confessed to the gang rape and murder of a 27-year-old woman, whom they set on fire. The four were shot dead by police in custody after allegedly snatching weapons from police and firing at them while visiting the scene to reconstruct the crime.

The Guardian, in its report, said, "Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh had been found guilty in a 2013 trial and sentenced to death by hanging, but their execution had been postponed multiple times due to Supreme Court appeals.

"The four were hanged at dawn on Friday in the capital’s high-security Tihar prison. It was the first time in five years that capital punishment has been carried out in India and hundreds gathered outside the prison gates, shouting death to rapists."

The Guardian also mentioned the Hyderabad rape case in its article on the 2012 Delhi gangrape case.

"In November, the brutal gang rape and murder of a 27-year-old vet in Hyderabad, whose body was burned and dumped, once again caused a national scandal over the failure to tackle the issue of sexual violence," it said.

Russian news agency, Sputniknews.com, stated, "In November, the brutal gang rape and murder of a 27-year-old vet in Hyderabad, whose body was burned and dumped, once again caused a national scandal over the failure to tackle the issue of sexual violence."

"Friday’s death sentence was the second in recent years on rape charges. India has carried out only four death sentences in the last 16 years – three for terrorism while the last one in 2015 was for raping a minor," it added.

The Independent threw light on how the laws relating to sexual harassment changed in India in the post-2012 phase.

"The outrage over the case has led to laws and sentencing guidelines around rape cases being modernised and tightened in a number of ways, alongside the setting up of fast-track courts to try such crimes. The policies have been popular, and there is undoubtedly public support in India for death sentences for the worst sexual crimes. In 2018, Narendra Modi’s government was widely praised for making rape of a minor under the age of 12 punishable by death," it said.

Wall Street Journal wrote, "India on Friday morning hanged four men convicted of the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in the capital, aiming to send the message that the nation takes women’s safety seriously."

The woman had been studying physiotherapy when she was faced with the tragedy.

Of the six arrested, Ram Singh was found dead in his jail cell and a minor was freed after three years in a reform home.