A day after the hanging of the convicts in the seven-year-old Nirbhaya rape and murder case, the United Nations has asked the countries to halt capital punishment or put a moratorium on it.
The four convicts of Nirbhaya case Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Akshay Kumar Singh (31), and Vinay Sharma (26) who were involved in the brutal rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedical student, named Nirbhaya by the media, were executed on Friday at 5:30 am at India’s high-security Tihar jail.
The spokesperson of Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of United Nations, Stephane Dujarric said the world calls on all nations to stop the use of capital punishment or put a moratorium on it at a press briefing on Friday. He said, “Our position has been clear, is that we call on all States to halt the use of capital punishment or at least put a moratorium on this.”
A large number of countries have already abolished capital punishment, while it is retained by several other countries, including USA, India, Pakistan and China. Fifty-six countries retain capital punishment, 106 countries have completely abolished it for all crimes, eight have abolished it for ordinary crimes, while maintaining it for special circumstances such as war crimes, and 28 are abolitionist in practice.
The United Nations has been advocating the abolition of capital punishment. The United Nations General Assembly adopted non-binding resolutions calling for a global moratorium on executions in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014, with a view to eventual abolition.
The horrendous rape and murder of the paramedical student ‘Nirbhaya’ had fueled a nationwide outrage. Six men were convicted of rape and murder of the medical intern who came to be called Nirbhaya. Of the six, four were convicted, one was a juvenile, who got convicted by the juvenile justice board. Accused Ram Singh committed suicide in jail even before his conviction. The juvenile convict later served three years in a rehabilitation home and was released later.
The convicts tried every possible legal remedy to evade the execution. The desperate attempts made them escape by postponing the death sentence that was initially had to be conducted on 22 January.
Finally, the rape and murder convicts were hanged together at 5:30 am on 20 March 2020 in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail closing the seven-year-old case of brutal murder and rape that shook the soul of the country.
