2012 Delhi Bus Rape And Murder Convicts Executed, Nirbhaya's Mother To 'Continue Fight For Justice For India's Daughters'

In the first execution in India since 2015, all four convicts of the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in December 2012 were hanged Friday morning.

On Dec.16, 2012, the victim, later dubbed as Nirbhaya, was raped in a moving bus by six men. A male friend, who had accompanied the victim, was also assaulted. Both of them were thrown on the road. Nirbhaya died from injuries 13 days later. The incident caused an outrage in the country.

In March the following year, one of the accused was found dead in jail and in 2015, another accused, who was 17 at the time of the incident, was released after he served three years in a reform facility.

In the last few months, the convicts filed several petitions in the Supreme Court, the highest judicial court in India. However, their petitions were rejected following which the four men — Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh — were hanged in Tihar Jail at 5.30 a.m. local time, Friday (8 p.m. EDT, Thursday). According to reports, the four men spent a sleepless night before they were hanged.

Speaking to media following the execution, Nirbhaya’s mother, Asha Devi, said, "We will continue our fight for justice for India's daughters. Our wait for justice was painful and agonizing. We finally got justice. I hugged my daughter's photo. The beasts have been hanged."

Badrinath Singh, Nirbhaya’s father, said, "Today is our victory and it happened because of media, society and Delhi Police. You can understand what is inside my heart by my smile."

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, "It took 7 years for justice to be delivered. Today, we have to take a pledge that a similar incident does not happen again. We have seen how the convicts manipulated the law until recently. There are a lot of loopholes in our system and we need to improve the system. We have to improve the policing and judicial system."