Following the execution of the convicts involved in the brutal gangrape and murder of 23-year-old physiotherapy student in 2012 who was named “Nirbhaya” by the media, several self-proclaimed human rights activists assumed moral high ground and dubbed the death penalty handed out to the convicts as an act of revenge.
One such woke activist happened to be a man by the name of Jayanta Bhattacharya. He accused Nirbhaya’s mother, Asha Devi, of having a “slum mentality” and “lust for blood” for seeking justice for her daughter.
Another Twitter user, Prakash Sastry, engaged in virtue signalling said that one cannot rejoice the execution of rapists. He claimed that if the death penalty is not taken off the table, then, India will become a “regressive society.”
By hanging the culprits in Nirbhaya case we can’t rejoice in saying justice has been served. If we are to be progressive society, safety and respect to human life should be sacrosanct and death penalty should be off the table. Otherwise we will be a regressive society.
— Prakash Sastry (@sastampere) March 20, 2020
A Twitter user by the name of Mohammed Mojahid who claims to be a student of Aligarh Muslim University wrote that capital punishment was “escapism” and a symptom of a “culture of violence”.
Capital punishment isn’t the solution, it is escapism.
— Mohd Mojahid (@MohdMojahid3) March 20, 2020
The death penalty is a symptom of a culture of violence, not a solution to it. #Nirbhaya https://t.co/tWHlKA2Zh9
Citing the report of Justice Verma Committee, Amnesty India, which is renowned for selective outrage and fake propaganda, claimed that death penalty is never the solution and that Friday’s execution allegedly added “another dark stain” to India’s human rights record.
All too often lawmakers in India hold up the #deathpenalty as a symbol of their resolve to tackle crime.
— Amnesty India (@AIIndia) March 20, 2020
In fact, the Justice Verma committee report highlighted that failures on the part of the Govt and police were the root cause behind crimes against women.#NirbhayaCase
On Thursday, the Caravan Magazine known for its vicious propaganda wrote an article whitewashing the perpetrator, Mukesh Singh, while lacking empathy for the real victim, Nirbhaya.
https://t.co/Zc5ufJNiTz
— Pratyasha Rath (@pratyasharath) March 19, 2020
This is probably the most disgusting article I have read in a long long time. The amount of whitewashing, purposeful blindness and absolute lack of empathy with the real victim (there is only one victim in this case), made me gag.
Vile attempt.
Earlier, controversial Supreme Court Judge (retired) Kurian Joseph asked whether heinous crimes such as rape would stop if the convicts were hanged. He said that capital punishment should be reserved for “rarest of rare cases”, implying that the brutal gangrape and murder was not a rarest of rare case.
Supreme Court Justice (retired) Kurian Joseph: By hanging these people (Nirbhaya case convicts), will such type of crimes stop? In Bachan Singh case, SC said that death penalty can be handed over in rarest of rare case & only when all other options are unquestionably foreclosed. pic.twitter.com/zt7UB5NcKD
— ANI (@ANI) March 18, 2020
It begs a counter-question: If their death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, then would it have eradicated rape from the country? Possibly no.
The last time a rapist, Dhananjoy Chatterjee, was hanged to death was way back in 2004. Only 3 other people (Afzal Guru, Ajmal Kasab and Yakub Memon) have been executed on charges of terrorism and inciting war against the nation in the past 20 years. If you compare the numbers with the world’s oldest democracy aka the United States of America, then, you will be surprised to know that 22 people were executed in 2019 alone. Comparatively, India has been using the death penalty more cautiously than it should.
Nirbhaya was brutally raped by 6 men, her intestines were ripped out and an iron rod was shoved in her private parts. Does this heinous crime not qualify as the “rarest of rare” crime? It does.
The case shook the conscience of the society as observed by the apex court. The convicts were given the opportunity to utilize all legal remedies available to them so much so that they were successful in prolonging their death penalty. Three death warrants were issued and stayed, as the convicts approached the courts with petitions one after another, delaying the process. In just 24 hours prior to the execution, the convicts had approached the courts five times, 3 petitions were rejected by Supreme Court, while one each was dismissed by Delhi High Court and the trial court. They were awarded death sentence back in 2014 by the trial court, and therefore they got ample opportunities to defend themselves. The convicts were executed only after they had exhausted all legal remedies available for them under India’s legal system.
Nevertheless, a mother (Asha Devi) who have been fighting an agonising legal battle for 7 long years could finally have closure. The execution of the convicts on Friday morning also sent out a stern message to the society that such crimes would not be tolerated.
