The 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder, commonly known as the Nirbhaya case, involved a rape and fatal assault that occurred on 16 December 2012 in
Munirka
Munirka is now an urban village in South West Delhi, located near Jawaharlal Nehru University and Indian Institute of Technology Delhi campuses. Originally it was a jat and brahmins village of Tokas, Rathi and mudgal Gotra. Munirka villager's l ...
, a neighbourhood in
South West Delhi
South West Delhi is one of the eleven administrative districts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi in India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, ...
. The incident took place when Jyoti Singh, a 22-year-old
physiotherapy
Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is one of the allied health professions. It is provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through physical examination, diagnosis, management, prognosis, patient ...
intern, was
beaten
Battery is a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact, distinct from assault which is the act of creating apprehension of such contact.
Battery is a specific common law offense, although the term is used more generally to refer to ...
,
gang-raped, and
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...
d in a private bus in which she was travelling with her male friend. There were six others in the bus, including the driver, all of whom raped the woman and beat her friend. She was rushed to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi for treatment and transferred to Singapore eleven days after the assault, where she succumbed to her injuries 2 days later.
The incident generated widespread national and international coverage and was widely condemned, both in India and abroad. Subsequently, public protests against the
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
and
central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
governments for failing to provide adequate security for women took place in
New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...
, where thousands of protesters clashed with
security forces
Security forces are statutory organizations with internal security mandates. In the legal context of several nations, the term has variously denoted police and military units working in concert, or the role of military and paramilitary forces (s ...
. Similar protests took place in major cities throughout the country. Since Indian law does not allow the press to publish a rape victim's name, the victim was widely known as ''Nirbhaya'', meaning "fearless", and her struggle and death became a symbol of women's resistance to rape around the world.
All the accused were arrested and charged with
sexual assault
Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...
and murder. One of the accused, Ram Singh, died in police custody from possible suicide on 11 March 2013. According to some published reports, the police say Ram Singh hanged himself, but the defense lawyers and his family allege he was murdered. The rest of the accused went on trial in a fast-track court; the prosecution finished presenting its evidence on 8 July 2013.
On 10 September 2013, the four adult defendants – Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Mukesh Singh (Ram Singh's brother) – were found guilty of rape and murder and three days later were
sentenced to death
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
.
In the death reference case and hearing appeals on 13 March 2014,
Delhi High Court
The High Court of Delhi (IAST: ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966'', with four judges, Chief Justice K. S. Hegde, Justice I. D. Dua, Justice H. R. Khanna and Justice S. ...
upheld the guilty verdict and the death sentences.
On 18 December 2019, the
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...
rejected the final appeals of the condemned perpetrators of the attack. The four adult convicts were executed by hanging on 20 March 2020.
The juvenile Mohammed Afroz was convicted of rape and murder and given the maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment in a reform facility, as per the
Juvenile Justice Act
Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 has been passed by Parliament of India amidst intense controversy, debate, and protest on many of its provisions by Child Rights fraternity. It replaced the Indian juvenile delinquenc ...
.
As a result of the protests, in December 2012, a judicial committee was set up to study and take public suggestions for the best ways to amend laws to provide quicker investigation and prosecution of sex offenders. After considering about 80,000 suggestions, the committee submitted a report which indicated that failures on the part of the government and police were the root cause behind crimes against women. In 2013, the
Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 (Nirbhaya Act) is an Indian legislation passed by the Lok Sabha on 19 March 2013, and by the Rajya Sabha on 21 March 2013, which provides for amendment of Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act, and Code of ...
was promulgated by President
Pranab Mukherjee
Dr. Pranab Mukherjee (11 December 193531 August 2020) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 13th president of India from 2012 until 2017. In a political career spanning five decades, Mukherjee was a senior leader in the India ...
, several new laws were passed, and six new fast-track courts were created to hear rape cases. Critics argue that the legal system remains slow to hear and prosecute rape cases, but most agree that the case has resulted in a tremendous increase in the public discussion of crimes against women and statistics show that there has been an increase in the number of women willing to file a crime report. However, in December 2014, two years after the attack, the victim's father called the promises of reform unmet and said that he felt regret in that he had not been able to bring justice for his daughter and other women like her.
A
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
documentary titled ''
India's Daughter
''India's Daughter'' is a documentary film directed by Leslee Udwin and is part of the BBC's ongoing Storyville series. The film is based on the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder of 23-year-old "Nirbhaya", who was a physiotherapy student. The docu ...
'' based on the attack was broadcast in the UK on 4 March 2015.
Indian-Canadian filmmaker
Deepa Mehta
Deepa Mehta, (; born 1 January 1950) is an Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, best known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire (1996 film), ''Fire'' (1996), ''Earth (1998 film), Earth'' (1998), and ''Water (2005 film), Water'' (2005 ...
's 2016 film ''
Anatomy of Violence
''Anatomy of Violence'' is a Canadian drama film which premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. Directed by Toronto-based filmmaker Deepa Mehta, the film explores the root causes leading up to the 2012 Delhi gang rape incident ...
'' was also based on the incident, exploring the social conditions and lack of mental and sexual education in Indian society that made it possible.
["Anatomy of Violence examines the men involved in the Delhi attack"]
. ''The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'', 8 September 2016. On 9 July 2018, the petition filed by the convicts in Supreme Court to reduce their death sentence to life imprisonment but SC upheld its earlier decision. The summary of the case is as follows: "The men convicted of raping and torturing a medical student on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012 will hang, the Supreme Court ruled today, confirming its earlier decision and rejecting the request of three of four convicts for their sentence to be reduced to a life term." The convicts were executed by the state on 20 March 2020. The Netflix original 2019 TV series ''
Delhi Crime
''Delhi Crime'' is an Indian crime drama streaming television series written and directed by Richie Mehta. casting director Radhesh More and produced by Golden Karaven, Ivanhoe Productions, Film Karavan and Poor Man's Productions. The series st ...
'' is based on the Delhi Police's search for the culprits of this case.
Incident
The victims, a 22-year-old woman, Jyoti Singh and her male friend, were returning home on the night of 16 December 2012 after watching the film ''
Life of Pi
''Life of Pi'' is a Canadian philosophical novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist is Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, India who explores issues of spirituality and metaphysics from an early age. He s ...
'' at
PVR Select City Walk
Select or SELECT may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Select'' (album), an album by Kim Wilde
* ''Select'' (magazine), a British music magazine
* ''MTV Select'', a television program
* ''Select Live'', New Zealand's C4 music program ...
,
Saket, South Delhi.
They boarded the bus at
Munirka
Munirka is now an urban village in South West Delhi, located near Jawaharlal Nehru University and Indian Institute of Technology Delhi campuses. Originally it was a jat and brahmins village of Tokas, Rathi and mudgal Gotra. Munirka villager's l ...
for
Dwarka
Dwarka () is a city and a municipality of Devbhumi Dwarka district in the state of Gujarat in Western India. It is located on the western shore of the Okhamandal Peninsula on the right bank of the Gomti river at the mouth of the Gulf of Kut ...
at about 9:30 pm (
IST
Ist or IST may refer to:
Information Science and Technology
* Bachelor's or Master's degree in Information Science and Technology
* Graduate School / Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Japan
* Graduate School ...
). There were only six others in the bus, including the driver. One of the men, identified as minor, had called for passengers telling them that the bus was going towards their destination.
Her friend became suspicious when the bus deviated from its normal route and its doors were shut. When he objected, the group of six men already on board, including the driver, taunted the couple, asking what they were doing alone at such a late hour.
During the argument, a scuffle ensued between her friend and the group of men. He was beaten, gagged and knocked unconscious with an iron rod. The men then dragged Jyoti to the rear of the bus, beating her with the rod and raping her while the bus driver continued to drive. A medical report later said that she suffered serious injuries to her abdomen, intestines and genitals due to the assault, and doctors said that the damage indicated that a blunt object (suspected to be the iron rod) may have been used for penetration.
That rod was later described by police as being a rusted, L-shaped implement of the type used as a
wheel jack handle.
According to police reports Jyoti attempted to fight off her assailants, biting three of the attackers and leaving bite marks on the accused men.
After the beatings and rape ended, the attackers threw both victims from the moving bus. One of the perpetrators later cleaned the vehicle to remove evidence. Police impounded it the next day.
The partially clothed victims were found on the road by a passerby at around 11 pm. The passerby called the
Delhi Police
The Delhi Police (DP) is the law enforcement agency for the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). Delhi Police comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India. In 2015, sanctioned strength of Delhi ...
who took the couple to
Safdarjung Hospital
Safdarjung Hospital is a multi-specialty hospital, and the largest central government hospital in India if measured by bed strength. It is associated with Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and located in the heart of New Delhi on the Ring Road, ...
, where Jyoti was given emergency treatment and placed on mechanical ventilation. She was found with injury marks, including numerous bite marks, all over her body. According to reports, one of the accused men admitted to having seen a rope-like object, assumed to be her intestines, being pulled out of the woman by the other assailants on the bus. Two blood-stained metal rods were retrieved from the bus and medical staff confirmed that "it was penetration by this that caused massive damage to her genitals, uterus and intestines".
Victims
Jyoti Singh, the eldest of three children and only daughter of her family,
was born in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
on 10 May 1990,
while her parents were from a small village in the
Ballia
Ballia is a city with a municipal board in the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Uttar Pradesh. The eastern boundary of the city lies at the junction of two major rivers, the Ganges River, Ganges and the Ghaghara River, Gh ...
district of
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
. Her father sold his
ancestral land
Ancestral domain or ancestral lands refers to the lands, territories and resources of indigenous peoples, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. The term differs from indigenous land rights, Aboriginal title or Native Title by directly indicati ...
to educate her, and worked double shifts to continue to pay for her schooling. In an interview, he related that as a youth he had dreamed of becoming a schoolteacher, but at that time education was not considered important and girls were not even sent to school. "Attitudes are changing back home now, but when I left 30 years ago, I vowed to never deny my children of education, so sending them to school was fulfilling my desire for knowledge."
He said : "It never entered our hearts to ever discriminate. How could I be happy if my son is happy and my daughter isn't? And it was impossible to refuse a little girl who loved going to school."
In compliance with Indian law, the real name of the victim was initially not released to the media, so
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
s were used for her by various media houses instead, including ''Jagruti'' ("awareness"), ''Jyoti'' ("flame"), ''Amanat'' ("treasure"), ''Nirbhaya'' ("fearless one"), ''Damini'' ("lightning", after the
1993 Hindi film) and ''Delhi braveheart''.
The male victim Awindra Pratap Pandey was a software engineer from
Gorakhpur
Gorakhpur is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, along the banks of the Rapti river in the Purvanchal region. It is situated 272 kilometers east of the state capital Lucknow. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur dist ...
, Uttar Pradesh, who lives in
Ber Sarai
Ber Sarai is a small neighbourhood located between Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and IIT Delhi in the South West district of Delhi, India.
Overview
The neighborhood comprises two distinct sections: Ber Sarai Village and Ber Sarai Delhi De ...
, New Delhi; he suffered broken limbs but survived.
Delhi police registered a criminal case against the editor of a Delhi-based tabloid, ''
Mail Today
''Mail Today'' is a news outlet currently publishing an e-paper and news website from Delhi, covering politics, entertainment, cinema, automobiles, fashion and lifestyle. It was established in November 2007. Its predecessor was the Today newspape ...
'', for disclosing the female victim's identity, as such disclosure is an offence under section 228(A) of
Indian Penal Code
The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the official criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of India established in ...
.
Shashi Tharoor
Shashi Tharoor (; ; born 9 March 1956 in London, England ) is an Indian former international civil servant, diplomat, bureaucrat and politician, writer and public intellectual who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, ...
, then a union minister, suggested that if the parents had no objection, her identity could be made public, with a view to showing respect for her courageous response by naming future laws after her.
Speaking to a British press reporter on 5 January, the victim's father was quoted as saying, "We want the world to know her real name. My daughter didn't do anything wrong, she died while protecting herself. I am proud of her. Revealing her name will give courage to other women who have survived these attacks. They will find strength from my daughter." Indian law forbids revealing the name of a rape victim unless the family agrees to it and, following the news article which published the father's reported quote and the victim's name, some news outlets in India, Germany, Australia, and the United States also revealed her name. However, the following day
Zee News
Zee News is an Indian Hindi-language news channel owned by Subhash Chandra's Essel Group. It launched on 27 August 1999 and is the flagship channel of the Zee Media Corporation.
The channel has been involved in several controversies and has ...
quoted the father as saying, "I have only said we won't have any objection if the government uses my daughter's name for a new law for crime against women that is more stringent and better framed than the existing one."
During a protest against the juvenile convict's release on 16 December 2015, the victim's mother said that the victim's name was Jyoti Singh and she was not ashamed of disclosing her name.
Medical treatment and death
On 19 December 2012, Singh underwent her fifth surgery which removed most of her remaining intestine. Doctors reported that she was in "stable but critical" condition. On 21 December, the government appointed a committee of doctors to ensure she received the best medical care. By 25 December, she remained
intubated
Intubation (sometimes entubation) is a medical procedure involving the insertion of a tube into the body. Patients are generally anesthetized beforehand. Examples include tracheal intubation, and the balloon tamponade with a Sengstaken-Blakemo ...
, on
life support
Life support comprises the treatments and techniques performed in an emergency in order to support life after the failure of one or more vital organs. Healthcare providers and emergency medical technicians are generally certified to perform basic ...
and in
critical condition
Medical state is a term used to describe a hospital patient's health status, or condition. The term is most commonly used in information given to the news media, and is rarely used as a clinical description by physicians.
Two aspects of the pati ...
. Doctors stated that she had a fever of 102 to 103 °F (39 °C) and that internal bleeding due to
sepsis
Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...
was somewhat controlled. It was reported that she was "stable, conscious and meaningfully communicative".
At a cabinet meeting chaired by
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...
on 26 December, the decision was taken to fly her to
Mount Elizabeth Hospital
Mount Elizabeth Hospital, known colloquially as Mount E, is a 345-bed private hospital in Singapore operated by Parkway Health. Construction began in 1976 and the hospital officially opened on 8 December 1979. The hospital specialises in cardi ...
in
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
for further care. Mount Elizabeth is a multi-organ transplant specialty hospital.
Some doctors criticised the decision as political, questioning the need to transfer an
intensive care unit
220px, Intensive care unit
An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensiv ...
(ICU) patient for organ transplants that were not scheduled for weeks or even months later.
Government sources indicate that the
Chief Minister of Delhi
The chief minister of the National Capital Territory of Delhi is the head of government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. According to the Constitution of India, the lieutenant governor is the National Capital Territory of Delhi's ''de ...
,
Sheila Dikshit
Sheila Dikshit () (née Kapoor; 31 March 1938 – 20 July 2019) was an Indian politician. The longest-serving Chief Minister of Delhi, as well as the longest-serving female chief minister of any Indian state, she served for a period of 15 yea ...
, was personally behind the decision.
Hours earlier, Union Minister
P. Chidambaram
Palaniappan Chidambaram (born 16 September 1945), better known as P. Chidambaram, is an Indian politician and lawyer who currently serves as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee ...
had stated that Jyoti was not in a condition to be moved.
During the six-hour flight by air-ambulance to Singapore on 27 December, Jyoti suddenly went into a "near collapse", which a later report described as a cardiac arrest.
The doctors on the flight created an
arterial line
An arterial line (also art-line or a-line) is a thin catheter inserted into an artery.
Use
Arterial lines are most commonly used in intensive care medicine and anesthesia to monitor blood pressure directly and in real-time (rather than by i ...
to stabilise her, but she had been without pulse and blood pressure for nearly three minutes and never regained consciousness in Singapore.
On 28 December, at 11 am (IST), Jyoti's condition was extremely critical. The chief executive officer of the Mount Elizabeth Hospital said that the victim suffered brain damage, pneumonia, and abdominal infection, and that she was "fighting for her life."
Her condition continued to deteriorate, and she died at 4:45 am on 29 December, Singapore Standard Time (2:15 am, 29 December,
IST
Ist or IST may refer to:
Information Science and Technology
* Bachelor's or Master's degree in Information Science and Technology
* Graduate School / Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Japan
* Graduate School ...
; 8:45 pm, 28 December,
UTC). Her body was cremated on 30 December in Delhi under high police security. The
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...
(BJP), the country's main opposition party at that time criticised the high security levels, stating that they were reminiscent of the
Emergency era, during which civil liberties were suspended.
One of Jyoti's brothers commented that the decision to fly her out to Singapore came too late, and they had pinned high hopes for her recovery prior to her death.
Arrests
Police had found and arrested some suspects within 24 hours of the crime.
From recordings made by a highway
CCTV
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...
, a description of the bus, a white charter bus with a name written on it, was broadcast. Other operators identified it as being contracted by a South Delhi private school. They then traced it and found its driver, Ram Singh. Police obtained sketches of the assailants with the help of the male victim, and used a mobile phone stolen from the two victims to find one of the assailants.
Six men were arrested in connection with the incident. They included 30-year-old Ram Singh, the bus driver, and his 26-year-old brother, Mukesh Singh, who were both arrested in
Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...
. Ram and Mukesh Singh lived in Ravidas camp, a slum in South Delhi. 20-year-old Vinay Sharma, an assistant gym instructor, and 19-year-old Pawan Gupta, a fruit seller, were both arrested in UP and Bihar.
A 17-year-old juvenile named Mohammed Afroz, from
Badayun
Budaun is commonly pronounced Badayun is a city and a seat of Budaun district, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located near the Ganges river in the centre of Western Uttar Pradesh. Budaun was the capital of Delhi Sultanate for four years from 1210 C ...
, Uttar Pradesh,
was arrested at the Anand Vihar terminal in Delhi. The juvenile had only met the others that day.
28-year-old Akshay Thakur, who had come to Delhi seeking employment, was the final suspect to be arrested in
Aurangabad, Bihar
Aurangabad is a city in Aurangabad District, Bihar, India. It is the district's centre of governance and has a population of 102,244 as of 2011. The people of this region speak Magahi and Hindi.
History
Aurangabad is sometimes called the "Chit ...
, and he was married with one son at the time of his arrest.
According to reports, the group had been eating and drinking together and "having a party" earlier in the day.
Although the charter bus which Ram Singh drove on weekdays was not permitted to pick up public passengers
or even to operate in Delhi because of its tinted windows,
they decided to take it out "to have some fun".
A few hours before committing the gang rape, the attackers had robbed a carpenter. The carpenter was 35-year-old Ramadhir Singh, who boarded the bus that was being driven by Mukesh Singh. The juvenile convict had lured him into the bus saying it was going to
Nehru Place
Nehru Place is a large commercial center in Delhi, India. Although its importance as a financial center has declined in recent years, Nehru Place is still a prominent commercial area in South Delhi and houses the headquarters of several India ...
. He was then beaten up and robbed of his mobile phone and 1500 in cash. After robbing him, the group dumped him at the
IIT Flyover
The IIT Flyover is the flyover from Sarvpriya Vihar to the IIT Delhi main gate in South Delhi, India. It is an important junction in Delhi's Outer Ring Road. The 620 route bus depot is located at one end of the flyover before the IIT Gate.
Th ...
. He reported about the group in the bus robbing him to three police constables: Kailash, Ashok and Sandeep, who were passing nearby. They refused to take any action in response, saying that the crime scene wasn't under their purview as they were from the
Hauz Khas
Hauz Khas is a neighborhood in South Delhi, its heart being the historic Hauz Khas Complex. Well known in medieval times, the Hauz Khas village has amazing buildings built around the reservoir. There are remnants of Islamic architecture rough ...
police station, and that he would have to report the incident to the station in
Vasant Vihar
Vasant Vihar is a diplomatic and residential sub-division of the South West Delhi in National Capital Territory of Delhi, India. It is located near the diplomatic area of Chanakyapuri, and houses over 50 diplomatic missions of foreign countries, ...
.
Shortly after the attacks, Pawan Gupta said he accepted his guilt and should be hanged. Mukesh Singh, who was placed in
Tihar Jail
Tihar Prisons, also called Tihar Jail and Tihar Ashram, is a prison complex in India and the largest complex of prisons in South Asia. Run by Department of Delhi Prisons, Government of Delhi, the prison contains nine central prisons, and is one ...
after his arrest, was assaulted by other inmates and was kept in
solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which the inmate lives in a single cell with little or no meaningful contact with other people. A prison may enforce stricter measures to control contraband on a solitary prisoner and use additi ...
for his own protection.
Ram Singh was presented before the Metropolitan Magistrate on 18 December 2012. He refused to participate in an identification process.
Investigation revealed a history of frequent drinking that resulted in "blinding rage", "bad temper", and quarrels with employers, that had led friends to call him "mental". On 11 March, Ram Singh was discovered hanging from a ventilator shaft in his cell which he shared with 3 other prisoners, at about 5:45 a.m. Authorities said it was unclear whether it was a suicide or a murder.
Trial
The male victim, Awindra Pratap Pandey, testified in court on 19 December 2012. Pandey recorded his statement with a sub-divisional magistrate at the Safdarjung Hospital on 21 December, in the presence of the Deputy Commissioner of police. He was reportedly plagued with guilt and trauma over the incident.
On 21 December, the government promised to file the
charge sheet
In policing on the Indian subcontinent, a chargesheet is prepared after First Information Reports (FIRs), and charges an individual for (some or all of) the crimes specified in those FIR(s).
Once the charge sheet has been submitted to a court ...
quickly and seek the maximum penalty of
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
for the perpetrators.
Following public outrage and a demand for a speedy trial and prosecution, on 24 December, the police promised to file the charge sheet within one week. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs met on 27 December to discuss the issue, and
Union Home Secretary R. K. Singh and Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar were summoned to appear.
The Delhi High Court approved the creation of five fast-track courts to try rape and sexual assault cases. The first of the five approved fast-track courts was inaugurated on 2 January 2013 by
Altamas Kabir
Altamas Kabir (19 July 1948 – 19 February 2017) was an Indian lawyer and judge who served as the 39th Chief Justice of India.
Early life and education
Altamas Kabir was born in Calcutta in 1948 to a Bengali Muslim family from the district of ...
,
Chief Justice of India
The chief justice of India (IAST: ) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian Judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the president of India to appoint, in consultation w ...
, in
Saket court complex in South Delhi.
On 21 December, the Delhi High Court reprimanded the Delhi police for being "evasive" in a probe status report providing details of officers on patrol duty in the area covered by the bus route.
A further court hearing on the matter was scheduled for 9 January 2013.
The following day, the Delhi Police initiated action against three
Hauz Khas
Hauz Khas is a neighborhood in South Delhi, its heart being the historic Hauz Khas Complex. Well known in medieval times, the Hauz Khas village has amazing buildings built around the reservoir. There are remnants of Islamic architecture rough ...
police station personnel for their inaction in responding to the robbery of the carpenter that took place earlier on the bus in the day.
On 24 December, two Assistant Commissioners of Police were suspended for failing to prevent the gang rape incident.
Juvenile defendant
The
juvenile
Juvenile may refer to:
*Juvenile status, or minor (law), prior to adulthood
*Juvenile (organism)
*Juvenile (rapper) (born 1975), American rapper
* ''Juvenile'' (2000 film), Japanese film
* ''Juvenile'' (2017 film)
*Juvenile (greyhounds), a greyho ...
defendant Mohammed Afroz,
whose name was later changed to Raju in the media due to his age, was declared as 17 years and six months old on the day of the crime by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), which relied on his
birth certificate
A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuin ...
and school documents. The JJB rejected a police request for a bone ossification (age determination) test for a positive documentation of his age.
On 28 January 2013, the JJB determined that Afroz would not be tried as an adult. A petition moved by
Janata Party
The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...
president
Subramanian Swamy
Subramanian Swamy (born 15 September 1939) is an Indian politician, economist and statistician. Before joining politics, he was a professor of Mathematical Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He is known for his Hindu na ...
seeking the prosecution of the minor as an adult because of the violent nature of his alleged crime was rejected by the JJB. The minor was tried separately in a
juvenile court
A juvenile court, also known as young offender's court or children's court, is a tribunal having special authority to pass judgements for crimes that are committed by children who have not attained the age of majority. In most modern legal s ...
.
A verdict in the case was scheduled to be announced on 25 July, but was deferred until 5 August and then deferred again to 19 August. On 31 August, he was convicted of rape and murder under the
Juvenile Justice Act
Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 has been passed by Parliament of India amidst intense controversy, debate, and protest on many of its provisions by Child Rights fraternity. It replaced the Indian juvenile delinquenc ...
and given the maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment in a reform facility, inclusive of the eight months he spent in remand during the trial. Reportedly, Jyoti's younger brother had impulsively tried to attack the juvenile convict after hearing the verdict but the crowd in the courtroom managed to restrain him. The juvenile was released on 20 December 2015.
For the rehabilitation and mainstreaming of Afroz as mandated by the
Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 management committees are set up before the release of juvenile convicts. Accordingly, a 'post-release plan' was submitted to the Delhi high court in December 2015. The plan, was prepared and submitted by the management committee, headed by the officer of the District Child Protection Unit, and had recommended that "(Afroz) should lead a new life with a new identity provided by the appropriate government as applicable in his case if permissible to avoid any backlash or violent reaction".
According to the report, the juvenile had learnt cooking and tailoring while staying in the reform house.
Report further said that Afroz would need a tailoring shop, a sewing machine and other tailoring equipment. The report also mentioned that a one time grant of from the government should be sufficient to support him initially.
The department of women and child development (WCD) of the government, stated that it would provide the money and would arrange the machine from an NGO.
Afroz's family had ostracized him for the crime and refused to accept him. However, after his release it was reported that he was working as a cook.
Adult defendants
Five days after Jyoti's death, on 3 January 2013, the police filed charges against the five adult men for rape, murder, kidnapping,
destruction of evidence, and the attempted murder of the woman's male companion.
Senior lawyer Dayan Krishnan was appointed as the special public prosecutor. Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta denied the charges. Some of the men had confessed earlier; however, their lawyers said that their clients had been tortured and that their confessions had been coerced.
On 10 January, one of their lawyers,
Manohar Lal Sharma
Manohar Lal Sharma is an Indian lawyer known for filing a number of frivolous public interest litigations.
Career
Starting with a public interest litigation in 1991 against provisions of the Places of Worship Act, 1991, Sharma has litigated a ...
, said in a media interview that the victims were responsible for the assault because they should not have been using public transportation and, as an unmarried couple, they should not have been on the streets at night. He went on to say: "Until today I have not seen a single incident or example of rape with a respected lady. Even an underworld
don
Don, don or DON and variants may refer to:
Places
*County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON
*Don (river), a river in European Russia
*Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name
*Don, Benin, a town in Benin
*Don, Dang, a vill ...
would not like to touch a girl without respect."
He also called the male victim "wholly responsible" for the incident because he "failed in his duty to protect the woman".
The Delhi police filed a charge sheet against the defendants on 13 March in the robbery of Ramadhir.
The four surviving adult defendants went on trial in a fast-track court. The prosecution presented evidence including witness statements, the victim's statement, fingerprints,
DNA testing
Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...
, and dental modelling. It completed its case on 8 July.
Conviction, sentencing, and imprisonment
On 10 September 2013, in the fast track court of Delhi, the four adult defendants were found guilty of rape, murder, unnatural offences and destruction of evidence. The four men faced the death penalty, and demonstrators outside the courthouse called for the hanging of the defendants.
The victim's father also called for the defendants to be hanged, stating, "We will get complete closure only if all the accused are wiped off from the face of the earth."
Lawyers for three of the four stated that their clients intended to appeal the verdict.
The four men were sentenced on 13 September to death by hanging.
Judge Yogesh Khanna rejected pleas for a lesser sentence saying the case has "shocked the collective conscience of India" and that "courts cannot turn a blind eye to such crimes."
The victim's family was present for the sentencing and her mother expressed satisfaction over the verdict saying, "We were waiting with bated breath, now we are relieved. I thank the people of my country and the media."
After the verdict was delivered, the people waiting outside the courtroom applauded.
Upon hearing that he would be executed, Vinay Sharma collapsed and pleaded with the judge, saying "Please sir, please sir." As the men left the courtroom, they shouted out to the crowd "Brothers, save us!"
While on death row, Mukesh Singh blamed Jyoti for being raped, saying "You can't clap with one hand – it takes two hands. A decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20 percent of girls are good." Singh also blamed Jyoti for her death, saying "When being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after 'doing her', and only hit the boy."
On 13 March 2014, the Delhi High Court found each of the defendants guilty of rape, murder, unnatural offences and destruction of evidence. With the verdict, the High Court confirmed the death sentences for the four men convicted in September 2013. The court noted that the crime, which stirred widespread protests over sexual crimes against women in the country, fell into the judicial system's "rarest of the rare category" that allows capital punishment. The lawyers of the four men said they would appeal to the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court appeal
On 15 March 2014, the
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...
stayed the execution of two of the four convicts, Mukesh Singh and Pawan Gupta, to allow them to make their appeal against their conviction on 31 March. This was further extended by the court to the second week of July. On 2 June, the two other convicts, Sharma and Thakur, also asked the Supreme Court to stay their execution to allow them to make an appeal of their convictions. On 14 July, their execution was also stayed by Supreme Court. On 27 August 2015, Vinay, Akshay, Mukesh and Pawan were convicted of robbing Ram Adhar and were later sentenced to 10-years imprisonment.
On 5 May 2017, the Supreme Court rejected the convicts' appeal and saying they had committed "a barbaric crime" that had "shaken society's conscience," the court upheld the death sentence of the four who had been charged in the murder. The verdict was well received by the family of the victim and the civil society. According to legal experts, the convicts still had the right to file a review petition to the Supreme Court. On 9 July 2018, the Supreme Court rejected a review petition by three of the convicts.
In November 2019, the Supreme Court dismissed a review petition from Akshay pleading for mercy. In doing so, the court retained the death sentence. After the verdict, Akshay's lawyer told the Supreme Court that he would appeal to the president. For this, he should be given three weeks time.
In January 2020, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court rejected the curative petitions of convicts, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh.
On 7 January 2020 a death warrant was issued for the Nirbhaya rapists by a Delhi court, setting an execution date of 22 January 2020 at 7:00a.m. IST in Tihar Jail.
Government authorities and the victim's mother alleged that the four convicts were "intentionally delaying" and "frustrating" the legal process in this case by filing their pleas in stages, so that the execution could be postponed.
Under the prison rules, if a case has more than one convicts awaiting death penalty and one of them moves a mercy plea then the execution of all the convicts would need to be postponed until a decision is made on the pending mercy plea.
Mercy plea to the President of India
Convict Mukesh filed a mercy plea. The Delhi government made a recommendation to reject the plea and forwarded it to the Lieutenant Governor. Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia stated that this action was taken at "lightning speed."
On 17 January 2020, the President of India rejected the mercy plea of the convict Mukesh Singh. The home ministry had recommended the president that the plea should be rejected.
Second, third and fourth death warrants
On 17 January 2020, hours after the rejection of the mercy plea, Judge
Dharmender Rana
Dharmender Rana is an Indian jurist, and an officer in the Delhi Higher Judicial Service.
Career and notable cases
Currently, Judge Rana is posted as an Additional Sessions Judge in the New Delhi District, Patiala House Courts Complex, Patiala ...
issued a second
death warrant
An execution warrant (also called death warrant or black warrant) is a writ that authorizes the execution of a condemned person. An execution warrant is not to be confused with a " license to kill", which operates like an arrest warrant but ...
for the convicts to be hanged after a mandatory fourteen-day gap on 1 February at 6a.m.
The fourteen days' reprieve was provided in accordance with law which states that the convicts awaiting an execution must have a reprieve after their mercy plea is rejected.
During the same hearing, the court also rejected a plea by the convict Mukesh to postpone the execution.
On 17 January, convict Pawan appealed to the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court order that rejected his claim that Pawan was a juvenile during the crime in 2012.
On 31 January, a Delhi court stayed the death warrant. The judge did not issue a fresh warrant for their execution. The lawyer cited Rule 836 of the prison manual which says that in a case where more than one person has been sentenced to death, the execution cannot take place unless all the convicts have exhausted their legal options.
On 17 February 2020, a third death warrant was issued by the court with the execution date as 3 March 2020 at 6:00a.m. On 4 March 2020, a fourth death warrant was issued by court with the execution date as 20 March 2020 at 5:30a.m. Numerous pleas and appeals were made by both the families of the convicts and the convicts themselves, including three of the convicts moving the
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...
for a stay on the death sentence; however, the date for the execution remained the same.
Execution of convicts
On 20 March 2020, at 5:30a.m. IST, Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta were executed at
Tihar Jail
Tihar Prisons, also called Tihar Jail and Tihar Ashram, is a prison complex in India and the largest complex of prisons in South Asia. Run by Department of Delhi Prisons, Government of Delhi, the prison contains nine central prisons, and is one ...
. They were
hanged
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...
on a gallows specially designed for four people.
According to prison officials, the four convicts refused the offers of a last meal and new clothes prior to the execution. They were blindfolded and did not resist as they were led to the gallows; however, Vinay Sharma suffered a breakdown prior to his execution and began pleading with the guards. The four convicts were pronounced dead after hanging for 30 minutes. Mukesh Singh reportedly requested to donate his organs.
Public protests
After the incident
Public protests took place in New Delhi on 21 December 2012 at
India Gate
The India Gate (formerly known as the All India War Memorial) is a war memorial located near the Rajpath on the eastern edge of the "ceremonial axis" of New Delhi, formerly called duty path. It stands as a memorial to 84,000 soldiers of the Br ...
and
Raisina Hill
Raisina Hill ( IAST: ''Rāyasīnā Pahāṛī''), often used as a metonym for the seat of the Government of India, is an area of New Delhi, housing India's most important government buildings, including Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residenc ...
, the latter being the location of both the
Parliament of India
The Parliament of India (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the R ...
and
Rashtrapati Bhavan
The Rashtrapati Bhavan (, rāsh-truh-puh-ti bha-vun; ; originally Viceroy's House and later Government House) is the official residence of the President of India at the western end of Rajpath, Raisina Hill, New Delhi, India. Rashtrapati Bh ...
, the official residence of the
President of India
The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...
. Thousands of protesters clashed with police and battled
Rapid Action Force
The Rapid Action Force (RAF) is a specialised wing of the Central Reserve Police Force of India to deal with riot and crowd control situations.
History
RAF was raised on 11 December 1991 with headquarters in New Delhi. It became fully opera ...
units. Demonstrators were
baton charge
A baton charge is a coordinated tactic for dispersing crowds of people, usually used by police or military in response to public disorder. In South Asia, a long bamboo stick, called ''lathi'' in Hindi, is used for crowd control, and the expressi ...
d, shot with
water cannon
A water cannon is a device that shoots a high-velocity stream of water. Typically, a water cannon can deliver a large volume of water, often over dozens of meters. They are used in firefighting, large vehicle washing, riot control, and mining ...
and
tear gas
Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ad ...
shells, and arrested.
Similar protests occurred throughout the country. More than 600 women belonging to various organisations demonstrated in
Bangalore
Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
. Thousands of people silently marched in
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
. Protests occurred online as well on the social networking sites Facebook and
WhatsApp
WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by American company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). It allows us ...
, with users replacing their profile images with a black dot symbol.
Tens of thousands signed an online petition protesting the incident.
Yoga guru
Baba Ramdev and former Army chief General
Vijay Kumar Singh
General Vijay Kumar Singh, (born 10 May 1950) is an Indian politician and a former four-star General in the Indian Army. He is the current Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Ministry of Civil Aviation in th ...
were among the demonstrators who clashed with Delhi Police at
Jantar Mantar
A Jantar Mantar ( Hindustani pronunciation: ͡ʒən̪t̪ər mən̪t̪ər is an assembly of stone-built astronomical instruments, designed to be used with the naked eye. There were five Jantar Mantars in India, all of them built at the com ...
. On 24 December, activist
Rajesh Gangwar
Rajesh Gangwar (born 12 January 1967) is a socialist, who believes in nonviolence. Born and raised in a small village of Bareilly,(Uttar Pradesh) he became an engineer, but left his career after becoming interested in social movements. He has be ...
started a hunger strike, saying about the accused men, "If my death shakes the system and gets them hanged, I am ready to die". Gangwar ended his fast after 14 days, saying, "My fight to demand a strict law against rape will be continued in the future... I have dedicated myself for this cause". Middle Finger Protests, a Chandigarh-based pressure group and NGO headed by human rights and social activist Prabhloch Singh, also played a key role in the agitations and protests in New Delhi.
Seven metro rail stations in New Delhi were closed on 22 December to discourage protesters from gathering at Raisina Hill. On 24 December, police blocked roads leading to India Gate and Raisina Hill to prevent possible mass protests, and closed nine metro stations, affecting thousands of transit patrons. News reporters were not allowed to reach India Gate and Raisina Hill. In addition to
CrPC
The Code of Criminal Procedure commonly called Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) is the main legislation on Procedural law, procedure for administration of Substantive law, substantive criminal law in India. It was enacted in 1973 and came into fo ...
section 144 Unlawful assembly is a legal term to describe a group of people with the mutual intent of deliberate disturbance of the peace. If the group is about to start an act of disturbance, it is termed a rout; if the disturbance is commenced, it is then ter ...
, which disallows assembly of groups larger than five, curfew was imposed near the presidential residence.
The Hindustan Times
''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia.
It was founded by Sunder Singh Lyall ...
accused police of using excessive force against the protestors, reporting that 375
tear gas canisters were used at India Gate and elsewhere in Delhi to disperse the crowds. An article in
First Post
''Firstpost'' is an Indian online news and media website. The site is a part of the Network 18 media conglomerate owned by Reliance Industries, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC-TV18.
The ''Network 18'' group was originally owned by Raghav ...
criticised the Indian government as well, saying that they failed to act positively or give credible assurances to the protesters and instead used police force, lathi-charging, pushing the media out of the scene, and shutting down metro rail stations.
Police stated that peaceful protests had been "hijacked" by hooligans and political activists.
During one protest, a police constable named Subhash Tomar collapsed and later died in hospital.
Two witnesses claimed that Tomar collapsed without being hit by any protesters, while a third disputed this.
Hospital doctors and the post-mortem gave contradictory reports: he died due to cardiac arrest, but it is not known if the heart attack was caused by blunt-force injuries that he suffered to his chest and neck. Some experts state that his chest injuries may have been a side effect of the administration of
CPR
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore sponta ...
.
The Delhi Police arrested 8 young men and charged them with Tomar's murder and rioting at India Gate. Later in March 2013, the police admitted in the High Court they had no evidence against the eight and gave them a clean chit. The youths said the move by the commissioner of police to charge them with murder had been "irresponsible".
After the victim's death
After Jyoti Singh's death on 29 December 2012, protests were staged throughout India, including
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
,
Chennai
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
,
Bengaluru
Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
,
Hyderabad
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...
,
Kochi
Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...
,
Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...
,
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
,
Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar (; ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Odisha. The region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as ''Ekamra Kshetra'' (area (''kshetra'') adorned with mango trees (''ekamra'')). Bhubaneswar is ...
and
Visakhapatnam
, image_alt =
, image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura (S20), INS ...
. Many of the mourners carried candles and wore black dresses; some pasted black cloth across their mouths.
The following day a large number of people staged protests near Jantar Mantar, New Delhi.
There were minor clashes between some groups of protesters and the police; the police then removed some protesters from the area.
One group of protesters also observed a one-day hunger strike at Jantar Mantar.
All roads leading to India Gate were closed by police and areas where protesters had gathered during the previous week were out of bounds to the public.
Some of the protesters drew graffiti and slogans on papers spread on the road, condemning the incident and demanding stricter laws and speedy judgement.
The BJP renewed its demand for a special parliament session to discuss the case and to adopt stricter laws on crime against women.
New Year's celebrations were scaled down to a large extent, with the Indian armed forces and some clubs and hotels in Delhi cancelling their New Year parties.
The Indian protests also sparked protests across South Asia, including marches and rallies in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In Nepal, hundreds of demonstrators in Kathmandu called for legal reforms and an overhaul of attitudes to women. In Bangladesh the human rights group
Ain o Salish Kendra
The Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) ( bn, আইন ও সালিশ কেন্দ্র (আসক); Centre for Law and Mediation) is a non-government, a national legal aid and human rights organisation in Bangladesh. It is one of the leading h ...
(ASK) said the protests in Delhi had given fresh impetus to protests against sexual violence. According to an ASK spokesperson, "although previous demonstrations on similar issues were largely dominated by women, men were now protesting too. The protests had also drawn people from a broad range of society."
In Paris, people participated in a march to the Indian embassy where a petition was handed over asking for action to make India safer for women.
An author for the
South Asia Analysis Group South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG) is a non-profit think tank based in India which conducts public interest and advocacy work. The group consists of Indian academics and former government officials. The self-stated objectives of the group include adva ...
explained the protests as expressions of middle-class angst arising out of a collapse of a social contract between them and the liberal state.
New Delhi has the highest number of sex crimes among India's major cities. Police figures show a rape reported on average every 18 hours; reported rape cases rose by nearly 17 percent between 2007 and 2011.
Only one of the 706 rape cases filed in Delhi in 2012 saw a successful conviction against the attacker.
Between 16 December and 4 January 501 calls for harassment and 64 calls for rape were recorded by the Delhi Police, but only four were followed up by inquiries.
The regional programme director for U.N. Women South Asia said, "There are rape cases in almost all cities and rural areas, where the victim dies immediately because of the brutality of the crime ... This time, it was like, 'Wake up.'"
Reactions
Members of the Indian parliament demanded severe punishment for the perpetrators. The then
Leader of the Opposition
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...
in the
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...
,
Sushma Swaraj
Sushma Swaraj () (''née'' Sharma; 14 February 1952 – 6 August 2019) was an Indian lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as the Minister of External Affairs of India in the first Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2019. She is only ...
, stated: "The rapists should be hanged".
Chairperson of the then ruling
United Progressive Alliance
United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is a centre-left political alliance of predominantly left-leaning political parties in India. It was formed after the 2004 general election with support from left-leaning political parties when no single party ...
Sonia Gandhi
Sonia Gandhi ('' née'' Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independ ...
visited the
Safdarjang Hospital
Safdarjung Hospital is a multi-specialty hospital, and the largest central government hospital in India if measured by bed strength. It is associated with Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and located in the heart of New Delhi on the Ring Road, ...
and met doctors on duty in the anesthesia and surgery departments for an update on the woman's health.
Bahujan Samaj Party
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is a national level political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), alon ...
chief,
Mayawati
Kumari Mayawati (born 15 January 1956) is an Indian politician. She has served four separate terms as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. She is the national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which focuses on a platform of social cha ...
, said that proper investigation was required, and that "action should be so strict that no one should dare to act in such a manner again".
Actress and member of the
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...
,
Jaya Bachchan
Jaya Bachchan (''Birth name, née'' Bhaduri; born 9 April 1948) is an Indian actress and politician. She is a member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha from the Samajwadi Party, serving four terms since 2004. Known primarily for her work in Hindi ...
said that she was "terribly disturbed" over the incident, and felt "ashamed" sitting in the House, feeling "helpless" for "not being able to do anything".
Meira Kumar
Meira Kumar (born 31 March 1945) is an Indian politician and former diplomat. A member of the Indian National Congress, she was the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment from 2004 to 2009, the Minister of Water Resources for a brief per ...
, the then Speaker of the Lok Sabha, told reporters a "new law should be brought in and must get passed to ensure the safety of women."
She went on to say: "The laws at present are not enough, we need stricter laws."
Sheila Dixit
Sheila Dikshit () (née Kapoor; 31 March 1938 – 20 July 2019) was an Indian politician. The longest-serving Chief Minister of Delhi, as well as the longest-serving female chief minister of any Indian state, she served for a period of 15 yea ...
, who at that time was the Chief Minister of Delhi, said that she did not have the courage to meet the victim and described Delhi as a "rape capital" in interviews. She said that senior police officials should be held accountable for the failure to take adequate measures to stop such incidents and called for "immediate setting up of fast-track courts to try rape cases and to get justice in a time-bound manner". The three constables who had refused to take action upon Ram Adhar's complaint of robbery were suspended for dereliction of duty.
On 24 December 2012, in his first official reaction after the incident, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...
appealed for calm, stressing that "violence will serve no purpose".
In a televised address, he assured that all possible efforts would be made to ensure the safety of women in India. Singh expressed empathy, saying: "As a father of three daughters I feel as strongly about the incident as each one of you".
As a tribute to Nirbhaya, the prime minister cancelled all his official events to celebrate the new year. Then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh,
Akhilesh Yadav Akhilesh is a given name. Notable people with the name include:
* Akhilesh Das (1961–2017), educationist, professor, Indian politician and philanthropist
* Akhilesh K. Gaharwar (born 1982), Indian academic and Professor at Texas A&M University
* ...
, announced a package of financial assistance and a government job to her family.
Speaking out against the protesters, President Pranab Mukherjee's son
Abhijit Mukherjee
Abhijit Mukherjee (born 2 January 1960) is an Indian politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) from the Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Mukherjee won the 2012 Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency by-elec ...
argued that the women protesters did not appear to him to be students, saying, "What's basically happening in Delhi is a lot like Egypt or elsewhere, where there's something called the Pink Revolution, which has very little connection with ground realities. In India, staging candle-lit marches, going to discothèques ... I can see many beautiful women among them – highly dented-painted ...
utI have grave doubts whether they're students ..." The remark was widely condemned as sexist. His sister
Sharmistha said that she and their father the president both disapproved. Then Maharashtra Chief Minister
Prithviraj Chavan
Prithviraj Chavan () (born 17 March 1946) is an Indian politician who was the 17th Chief Minister of Maharashtra, a state in Western India. Chavan is a graduate of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani and University of Cali ...
also expressed disapproval. Abhijit quickly withdrew his comment and apologised. Spiritual guru
Asaram Bapu
Asumal Sirumalani Harpalani (born 17 April 1941), known by devotees as Asaram Bapu, is an Indian religious leader and convicted rapist, who started to come into the limelight in the early 1970s. By 2013, he was estimated to have established ov ...
also provoked extensive criticism from the public by saying that the victim was also to blame for her own assault because she could have stopped the attack if she had "chanted God's name and fallen at the feet of the attackers".
International
The
American embassy released a statement on 29 December 2012, offering their condolences to Nirbhaya's family and stated "we also recommit ourselves to changing attitudes and ending all forms of gender-based violence, which plagues every country in the world". Nirbhaya was posthumously awarded one of the 2013
International Women of Courage Award
The International Women of Courage Award, also referred to as the U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award, is an American award presented annually by the United States Department of State to women around the world who have ...
s of the
US State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...
. The citation stated that "for millions of Indian women, her personal ordeal, perseverance to fight for justice, and her family's continued bravery is helping to lift the stigma and vulnerability that drive violence against women."
The crime of rape became a capital offence in India following the rape. Indian politician
Mulayam Singh Yadav
Mulayam Singh Yadav (22 November 1939 – 10 October 2022) was an Indian politician, a socialist figure and the founder of the Samajwadi Party. In the course of his political career spanning more than six decades, he served for three terms as ...
opposed this change in the law, saying that "Boys will be boys. Boys commit mistakes". Two years later, in response to these comments and another
incident of rape that took place in Uttar Pradesh where Yadav's party was governing, UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon (; ; born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was his country's Minister ...
said "We say no to the dismissive, destructive attitude of, 'Boys will be boys'". and stated, "Violence against women must never be accepted, never excused, never tolerated. Every girl and woman has the right to be respected, valued and protected".
UN Women
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women advocates for the rights of women and girls, and focu ...
called on the
Government of India
The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
and the
Government of Delhi
The Government of Delhi, officially the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) is the governing body of the Union Territory of Delhi, whose urban area is the seat of the Government of India. It also governs the city or l ...
"to do everything in their power to take up radical reforms, ensure justice and reach out with robust public services to make women's lives more safe and secure".
In the wake of remarks against India in Western media,
Jessica Valenti
Jessica Valenti (; born November 1, 1978) is an American feminist writer. She was the co-founder of the blog Feministing, which she wrote for from 2004 to 2011. Valenti is the author of five books: ''Full Frontal Feminism'' (2007), ''He's a Stud, ...
, writing in ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
'', argued that such rapes are also common in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, but US commentators exhibit a
double standard
A double standard is the application of different sets of principles for situations that are, in principle, the same. It is often used to describe treatment whereby one group is given more latitude than another. A double standard arises when two ...
in denying or minimising their systemic nature while simultaneously attacking India for an alleged rape culture.
Author and activist
Eve Ensler
V, formerly Eve Ensler (; born May 25, 1953), is an American playwright, performer, feminist, and activist. V is best known for her play ''The Vagina Monologues''. , who organised
One Billion Rising
One Billion Rising is a global campaign, founded by Eve Ensler, to end rape and sexual violence against women. It was started in 2012 as part of the V-Day movement. The "billion" refers to the UN statistic that one in three women will be raped ...
, a global campaign to end violence against women and girls, said that the gang rape and murder was a turning point in India and around the world. Ensler said that she had travelled to India at the time of the rape and murder and she commented:
After having worked every day of my life for the last 15 years on sexual violence, I have never seen anything like that, where sexual violence broke through the consciousness and was on the front page, nine articles in every paper every day, in the centre of every discourse, in the centre of the college students' discussions, in the centre of any restaurant you went in. And I think what's happened in India, India is really leading the way for the world. It's really broken through. They are actually fast-tracking laws. They are looking at sexual education. They are looking at the bases of patriarchy and masculinity and how all that leads to sexual violence.
Tourism
In the aftermath of the rape case the number of female tourists fell by 35% compared to the period the previous year according to an industry survey by
ASSOCHAM
The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India () is a Non-governmental organization, non-governmental trade association and advocacy group based in New Delhi, India. The organisation represents the interests of trade and commerce in ...
.
The
Foreign Office
Foreign may refer to:
Government
* Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries
** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government
** Foreign office and foreign minister
* Unit ...
of the UK modified its travel advice and advised women against travelling alone.
In 2014, Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley
Arun Jaitley (28 December 1952 – 24 August 2019) was an Indian politician and attorney. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Jaitley served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Government of India from 2014 to 2019. Jait ...
commented that one small incident of rape in Delhi' advertised world-over is enough to cost us billions of dollars in terms of lower tourism".
Results of protests
In the view of widespread protests, governments at the centre and various states announced several steps to ensure the safety of women. The
Government of Karnataka
The Government of Karnataka, abbreviated as, GoK, or simply Karnataka Government, is a democratically-elected state body with the governor as the ceremonial head to govern the Southwest Indian state of Karnataka. The governor who is appointed ...
announced the launch of a
24/7
In commerce and industry, 24/7 or 24-7 service (usually pronounced "twenty-four seven") is service that is available at any time and usually, every day. An alternate orthography for the numerical part includes 24×7 (usually pronounced "twenty ...
dedicated helpline (1091) to be operated by the state police to register sexual abuse complaints from women.
It is also checking the possibility of setting up fast-track courts to dispose of pending cases pertaining to crimes against women. The
Government of Tamil Nadu
Government of Tamil Nadu is the subnational government for the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is seated at Fort St George, Chennai. The legislature of Tamil Nadu was bicameral until 1986, when it was replaced by a unicameral legislature, lik ...
also announced a 13-point action plan to ensure safety of women in Tamil Nadu and said that incidents of sexual assault would be treated as a grave crime, and probes would be entrusted to top police officials. The chief minister also said that daily hearings would be conducted in all sexual abuse cases in the state for speedy trials at specially constituted fast-track courts, and women prosecutors would be appointed as government counsels.
The
Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to:
* Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent
* Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory
* Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...
government also announced plans to change the state's laws against sexual offences and gender crimes. The
Government of Himachal Pradesh
The Government of Himachal Pradesh also known as the State Government of Himachal Pradesh, or locally as State Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It consists of an executive branch, led by th ...
decided to set up state and district-level committees to review progress of all cases of crimes against women.
Justice Verma Committee and changes in law
On 22 December 2012, a judicial committee headed by
J. S. Verma
Jagdish Sharan Verma (18 January 1933 – 22 April 2013) was an Indian jurist who served as the 27th Chief Justice of India from 25 March 1997 to 18 January 1998. He was the chairman of National Human Rights Commission from 1999 to 2003, and ...
, a former
Chief Justice of India
The chief justice of India (IAST: ) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of India as well as the highest-ranking officer of the Indian Judiciary. The Constitution of India grants power to the president of India to appoint, in consultation w ...
and one of India's most highly regarded Chief Justices and eminent jurists, was appointed by the Central government to submit a report within 30 days to suggest amendments to criminal law to sternly deal with
sexual assault
Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...
cases. The committee urged the public in general and particularly eminent jurists, legal professionals, NGOs, women's groups and civil society to share "their views, knowledge and experience suggesting possible amendments in the criminal and other relevant laws to provide for quicker investigation, prosecution and trial, and also enhanced punishment for criminals accused of committing sexual assault of an extreme nature against women." The Committee held its first meeting on 26 December 2012; it had received more than 6,000 emails with suggestions by then. The Justice Verma Committee report was submitted after 29 days, after considering 80,000 suggestions received during the period. The report indicated that failures on the part of the government and police were the root cause behind crimes against women. Suggestions in the report included the need to review the
Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) in conflict areas, and setting the maximum punishment for rape as death penalty rather than life imprisonment. The committee did not favour lowering the age of an adult from 18 to 16.
On 26 December 2012, a Commission of Inquiry headed by former Delhi High Court judge
Usha Mehra
Usha Mehra (born 14 November 1941) is a former judge of the Delhi High Court, in India. She authored a significant report on lapses in police and judicial procedure in investigating and prosecuting cases of sexual assault in India, following the ...
was set up to identify lapses, determine responsibility in relation to the incident, and suggest measures to make Delhi and the wider
National Capital Region
A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...
safer for women. On 1 January 2013, a task force headed by the Union Home Secretary was established to look into women's safety issues in Delhi and review the functioning of the city police force on a regular basis.
On 3 February 2013, the
Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 (Nirbhaya Act) is an Indian legislation passed by the Lok Sabha on 19 March 2013, and by the Rajya Sabha on 21 March 2013, which provides for amendment of Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act, and Code of ...
was promulgated by President
Pranab Mukherjee
Dr. Pranab Mukherjee (11 December 193531 August 2020) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 13th president of India from 2012 until 2017. In a political career spanning five decades, Mukherjee was a senior leader in the India ...
. It provides for amendment of the
Indian Penal Code
The Indian Penal Code (IPC) is the official criminal code of India. It is a comprehensive code intended to cover all substantive aspects of criminal law. The code was drafted on the recommendations of first law commission of India established in ...
,
Indian Evidence Act
The Indian Evidence Act, originally passed in India by the Imperial Legislative Council in 1872, during the British Raj, contains a set of rules and allied issues governing admissibility of evidence in the Indian courts of law.
Importance
The ...
, and Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, on laws related to sexual offences. The ordinance provides for the death penalty in cases of rape. According to Minister of Law and Justice
Ashwani Kumar, 90 percent of the suggestions given by the Verma Committee Report were incorporated into the Ordinance. However, critics state that many key suggestions of the commission have been ignored, including the criminalisation of marital rape and trying military personnel accused of sexual offences under criminal law.
In a December 2013 interview, Nirbhaya's parents, Badri Nath Singh and Asha Devi, said they were trying to get the juvenile law changed in such crimes as the rape and murder of their daughter. They petitioned the Supreme Court to try the juvenile in a criminal court instead of a Juvenile Justice court. The juvenile defendant was sent to
borstal
A Borstal was a type of youth detention centre in the United Kingdom, several member states of the Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland. In India, such a detention centre is known as a Borstal school.
Borstals were run by HM Prison Service ...
youth detention for three years and then released. He was just short of 18 years when he committed the crime.
In a March 2015 interview with
''The Tribune'', Women and Child Development Minister
Maneka Gandhi
Maneka Sanjay Gandhi (also spelled Menaka; ''née'' Anand) (born 26 August 1956) is an Indian politician, animal rights activist, and environmentalist. She is a member of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament and a member of ...
said that Government is going ahead with a law treating juveniles as adults in grave crimes.
On 22 December 2015, Rajya Sabha passed the revised
Juvenile Justice Act
Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 has been passed by Parliament of India amidst intense controversy, debate, and protest on many of its provisions by Child Rights fraternity. It replaced the Indian juvenile delinquenc ...
, which proposed that the accused of heinous crimes who are above 16 years of age will be treated as an adult in the court of law.
Legacy
Anniversary memorials
On 16 December 2013, the anniversary of the attack, activists held memorials throughout New Delhi in memory of the victim widely known as Nirbhaya, meaning "fearless". Members of women's organisations lit candles in her memory and protested against exploitation of women. University students and others organised a candlelight march at the bus stand in South Delhi where Nirbhaya and her friend Pandey boarded the bus in which the rape and beatings took place. At a commemorative prayer meeting political leaders resolved to increase efforts to improve women's security. Speaking with the victim's mother, former chief minister Sheila Dikshit said that Delhi's society and the various authorities will work together to build a permanent legacy to her daughter: "... whatever you will want in her memory, we will try to fulfill. And we will try with a conviction that such an incident is not repeated with anybody else in the future". The victim's parents spoke at a memorial saying that they were proud of the courage that their daughter showed, which they believe "has spurred more women to speak out instead of hiding the crimes committed against them".
In December 2014, the two-year anniversary of the attack, referring to a woman who was raped in a car operated by an
Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...
driver, the parents remarked to the press that not much had changed: "Nothing in India has changed since 16 December 2012. All promises and statements made by our leaders and ministers have turned out to be shallow. Our suffering gives them their moment in limelight. My daughter asks me what I have done to get her justice. She asks what am I doing so that many more like her get justice and I wake up to realise how helpless and trivial I am..."
"Nirbhaya Chetna Diwas", a public event organised by women's and citizens groups, candle light vigils, prayer meetings, and other events were held on 16 December 2015 at the Jantar Mantar to pay homage to Jyoti on the third anniversary of her death. In what was called "a brave homage to her daughter", Jyoti's mother, Asha Devi, said, "My daughter's name was Jyoti Singh and I am not ashamed to name her. Those who commit heinous crimes like rape, their heads should hang in shame, not the victims' or their families'."
Devi spoke out against the upcoming release of the juvenile and put forth four demands for justice:
On the third death anniversary of our death, we are seeing the release of the juvenile convict. Where is justice in that? I do not know whether he is 16 or 18. I only know that he has committed a brutal crime and there should be no age limit for punishment; ..the juvenile convict should be sentenced to death, fast-track courts be set up in all the courts to offer speedy justice to sexual assault victims, amendments to the Juveniles Justice Act be passed and utilisation of Nirbhaya Fund for setting up high quality forensic labs in all states.
Changes to the legal system
The outpouring of anger and grief following the rape and murder gave rise to hopes for change in India. The government responded with the passage of several new sexual assault laws, including a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years for gang rape, and six new fast-track courts created solely for rape prosecutions. As an indicator of the scope of the problem of rape prosecution, the "Nirbhaya" case was the only conviction obtained among the 706 rape cases filed in New Delhi in 2012.
Between 16 December 2012 and 4 January 2013, Delhi police recorded 501 allegations of harassment and 64 of rape, but only four inquiries were launched. However, it appears that the "Nirbhaya" case has had an effect on the willingness of rape or molestation victims to report the crime; police records show that during the final nine months of 2013 almost twice as many rape victims filed a police report and four times as many allegations of molestation were made.
A recent report released by the
National Crime Records Bureau
The National Crime Records Bureau, abbreviated to NCRB, is an Indian government agency responsible for collecting and analyzing crime data as defined by the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Special and Local Laws (SLL). NCRB is headquartered in New ...
shows that 95 percent of the cases brought to the police were classified as a crime. However, there is a large backlog of cases with fewer than 15 percent of those charged tried in 2012, leaving 85 percent waiting to come to trial.
On 16 December 2013, the one-year anniversary of the rape was commemorated in London with a public memorial to honour the victim. Speakers included
Meera Syal
Meera Syal FRSL (born Feroza Syal; 27 June 1961) is a English comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created '' Goodness Gracious Me'' and portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, ...
, whose parents are from New Delhi. Speaking of the anger that was expressed at the time of the rape, she said, "We need to hold onto that anger and demand that the Indian Government enforces all the promised changes of its recent Criminal Law Amendment Act, which changed laws to expand the definition of rape and incorporated new offences including acid attack, sexual harassment, voyeurism and stalking".
She also said that activists need to act in solidarity with other organisations to stop violence against women and girls around the world.
Following the incident the government set up the
Nirbhaya Fund
Nirbhaya Fund was an Indian rupee 10 billion corpus announced by Government of India in its 2013 Union budget of India, 2013 Union Budget. The Finance Minister P. Chidambaram expected the fund to support initiatives protecting the dignity and ens ...
for "empowerment, safety and security of women and girl children. The Fund is administered by
Department of Economic Affairs of the finance ministry. However, an
Oxfam
Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International.
History
Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford Co ...
India report published in 2021 shows that the fund remains underused and underutilized.
Public discussions about violence against women
Observers agree that the victim's ordeal has brought a change to public conversations about women's issues, with men joining in the discussions as well. A young woman who had taken part in the protests at the time of the rape said a year later, "A welcome change is that the taboo on discussing rape and sexual violence has been broken. The protests brought debates and discussions to our homes." She also said that since the rape and protests the media is now providing coverage of sexual violence. However, she saw "absolutely no change in the rape culture and related brutality. The streets are not safe.
Teasing
Teasing has multiple meanings and uses. In human interactions, teasing exists in three major forms: ''playful'', ''hurtful'', and ''educative''. Teasing can have a variety of effects, depending on how it is used and its intended effect. When teas ...
and
catcalling
Street harassment is a form of harassment, primarily sexual harassment that consists of unwanted sexualised comments, provocative gestures, honking, wolf-whistlings, indecent exposures, stalking, persistent sexual advances, and touching by st ...
or worse are to be found everywhere. Sexual harassment in public places as well as inside the home is still rampant." She added, "I do acknowledge, however, that a year is too less to undo what
patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...
has done over centuries. It is too embedded in our homes, our institutions and in our laws. The police may be a little more receptive, but it is not out of a sense of duty but out of the fear of censure".
A poll in October 2017, the first of its kind in the world, which was published by Thomson Reuters Foundation, found that Delhi was the fourth most dangerous city in the world for women and it was also the worst city in the world for women when it came to sexual violence, rape and harassment.
Nirbhaya Trust
In December 2013, the family of the victim along with social entrepreneur Sarvesh Kumar Tiwari established the Nirbhaya Trust,
an institute formed to assist women who have experienced violence to find shelter and legal assistance. Due to the fact that Indian laws do not allow the publishing of a rape victim's name, it was named ''Nirbhaya'' which means ''fearless'' in Hindi, after the name used by the media. The victim's father stated, "So many people supported us, so ... we want
ohelp those girls who have no one."
Artistic Depictions of ''Nirbhaya''
BBC Storyville: ''India's Daughter''
''
India's Daughter
''India's Daughter'' is a documentary film directed by Leslee Udwin and is part of the BBC's ongoing Storyville series. The film is based on the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder of 23-year-old "Nirbhaya", who was a physiotherapy student. The docu ...
'' (2015) is a documentary film directed and produced by
Leslee Udwin Leslee may refer to
* Leslee Feldman, studio head of casting
* Leslee Silverman, Canadian theater director
* Leslee Smith, British Virgin Islands basketball player
* Leslee Udwin, British filmmaker
* Leslee Unruh, Activist
* Leslee Milam Post, Amer ...
, and is part of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
's ongoing ''
Storyville'' series.
It was scheduled to be broadcast on
International Women's Day
International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...
, 8 March 2015,
in India on
NDTV 24x7
NDTV 24x7 is a 24-hour English-language television news channel based in New Delhi, India.Louis Brawley ''Remote Control: Indian Television in the New Millennium'' Penguin UK (2012)
History
Until about the end of the 1980s, like most of the w ...
and in
UK on
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 .
On 1 March it was revealed that the filmmakers had interviewed one of the rapists while he was being held in the Tihar jail.
Soon, the news was picked up by Indian
media outlets
Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets.
Broadcast media transmit information ...
.
The Indian government blocked its broadcast in India by obtaining a court order on 4 March. The BBC said it would comply with the order and did not broadcast the film in India.
In the UK however, the BBC moved the transmission forward to 4 March, and it was shown on that date.
The film was also uploaded on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
and soon went
viral
Viral means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents).
Viral may also refer to:
Viral behavior, or virality
Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example:
* Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spread a marke ...
with various shares on social media. On 5 March, the Indian government directed YouTube to block the video in India and YouTube complied with the order.
The film has generated a great deal of controversy in both India and worldwide.
Because India does not permit a rape victim's name to be published, the victim was called "''Nirbhaya''", which means fearless, because of her efforts to fight off her rapists and her insistence on making a detailed statement to the police before she died. However, following the death of their daughter, the parents were quoted in several media articles as saying they had no objections to using their daughter's name.
In the film the father states he is "happy" to reveal her name, Jyoti Singh, and on 5 March the father was quoted as saying he thought "everyone should watch the documentary, which showed 'the bitter truth' about attitudes to women in India".
Even still, on 6 March, the news outlet ''
The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
'' ran an article "Father objects to revealing gangrape victim's name in 'India's Daughter'" in which they quoted the father as saying that he planned to take legal action because her name was used.
The film's director and producer Leslee Udwin said that it was the courage and bravery shown by the unprecedented numbers of men and women who protested the rape and murder that inspired her to make the film. Speaking in an interview, Udwin said:
Courageous and impassioned ordinary men and women of India braved the December freeze to protest in unprecedented numbers, withstanding an onslaught of teargas shells, lathi charges aton chargesand water canons, to make their cry of 'enough is enough' heard. In this regard, India led the world by example. In my lifetime, I can't recall any other country standing up with such commitment and determination for women's rights.
In reference to the actual film, Nirbhaya's father, Badrinath Singh, said that ''India's Daughter'' "holds up a mirror to society", and that the screening of the film holds a significance in the sense "that the struggle that my daughter was part of continues." Singh has also said that since the death of his daughter "every girl on the street is
owlike a daughter" to him and his wife, and that people in general need to understand that their sons need to be taught to respect women. Speaking on 5 March, Singh said:
Netflix Series ''Delhi Crime''
Richie Mehta
Richie Mehta is a Canadian film director and writer. His first feature film, ''Amal'', was released in 2008, and was nominated for Best Motion Picture and Best Director at the 29th Genie Awards.
In 2013, Mehta released two films he wrote a ...
, a Canadian filmmaker, made a seven part
web television
Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aer ...
series titled ''
Delhi Crime
''Delhi Crime'' is an Indian crime drama streaming television series written and directed by Richie Mehta. casting director Radhesh More and produced by Golden Karaven, Ivanhoe Productions, Film Karavan and Poor Man's Productions. The series st ...
'' in 2019. It was based on the aftermath and the subsequent manhunt of the perpetrators of the case. Starring
Shefali Shah
Shefali Shah (born Shefali Shetty on 22 May 1973) is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. Respected for her acting prowess, she works primarily in independent Hindi films and has received local and foreign accolades for her perf ...
,
Rasika Duggal
Rasika Dugal (born 17 January 1985) is an Indian actress. She is known for her roles in several Indian movies and television shows.
She made her screen debut with a small role, in the film '' Anwar'' (2007). And then she went onto star in many ...
and
Adil Hussain
Adil Hussain () is an Indian actor who has worked in Indian cinema, including art house cinema and mainstream Bollywood, as well as international cinema, in films such as ''The Reluctant Fundamentalist'' and ''Life of Pi'' (both 2012).
He rece ...
, the series was released on
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
. This 7-episode series won the ''
Best Drama Series'' at the
48th International Emmy Awards
The 48th International Emmys Awards took place on November 23, 2020, in New York City. The award ceremony, presented by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (IATAS), honors all TV programming produced and originally aired outsi ...
.
Literary works
Motivated by this unfortunate incidence, Ram Devineni, Lina Srivastava, and Dan Goldman released the comic book ''
Priya's Shakti
''Priya's Shakti'' is a graphic novel by Ram Devineni and Dan Goldman, whose heroine, Priya, is a "modern-day female superhero", a rape survivor who rides a flying tiger. Issued in 2014, it was followed by ''Priya's Mirror'' (2016) and ''Priya an ...
''. The storyline of the comic focuses on Priya, a human woman and ardent devotee of the Goddess
Parvati
Parvati ( sa, पार्वती, ), Uma ( sa, उमा, ) or Gauri ( sa, गौरी, ) is the Hindu goddess of power, energy, nourishment, harmony, love, beauty, devotion, and motherhood. She is a physical representation of Mahadevi i ...
, who has experienced a brutal rape and the social stigma and isolation resulting from it. Inspired by the goddess, Priya fights against gender-based sexual violence in India and around the world, supporting the movement against
patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...
and
misogyny
Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced fo ...
.
A book on the Nirbhaya case titled ''Courting Injustice: The Nirbhaya Case and its Aftermath'' was authored by
Rajesh Talwar
Rajesh Talwar is a lawyer and writer from India. He has written several books on the topics of law and human rights.
Early life
Talwar studied economics at Hindu College at the University of Delhi. Subsequently, he went to the University of ...
, and published by Hay House in 2013
On 5 September 2014, Bandaru Dattareya, a member of Parliament and
BJP
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...
National Vice President, inaugurated "Wo Desh Ki Beti" (Nation's Daughter), a social event at
Hyderabad
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...
showcasing a collection of sixteen poems authored by
Sunil Kumar Verma which depicted the pain of a nation at the gang rape of its daughters.
Art
Several artists have been inspired to create artworks based on Nirbhaya's story. In January 2014, artists from all over the country came together to hold an art exhibition about Nirbhaya and sexual assault in India. Contemporary scroll painter, Kalam Patua created a painting titled ''Nirbhaya'' that was exhibited in The 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. Feminist artist,
Pritika Chowdhry
Pritika Chowdhry is an Indian-born American artist, curator, and writer. She is known for her work in the socio-political domain.
Pritika is the founder of Partition Anti-Memorial Project and Counter-Memory Project.
Biography
Born in India, Prit ...
has created several artworks reimagining Nirbhaya as a superheroine. To depict the large number of rape victims every year, she has created a Nirbhaya superheroine, an Anonymous Nirbhaya mask, and more art projects to advocate against sexual assault through art. Polish-American artist, Monica Weiss has created an art memorial for Nirbhaya.
See also
General
*
Capital punishment in India
Capital punishment in India is a legal penalty for some crimes under the country's main substantive penal legislation, the Indian Penal Code, as well as other laws. Executions are carried out by hanging as the primary method of execution as gi ...
*
Dekh Le, a viral video released on the first anniversary of the incident
* ''
Delhi Crime
''Delhi Crime'' is an Indian crime drama streaming television series written and directed by Richie Mehta. casting director Radhesh More and produced by Golden Karaven, Ivanhoe Productions, Film Karavan and Poor Man's Productions. The series st ...
'', Indian drama series based on the incident
*
It's Your Fault (video)
*
Nirbhaya Fund
Nirbhaya Fund was an Indian rupee 10 billion corpus announced by Government of India in its 2013 Union budget of India, 2013 Union Budget. The Finance Minister P. Chidambaram expected the fund to support initiatives protecting the dignity and ens ...
*
Nirbheek
Nirbheek (lit. "fearless")https://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/13/world/asia/india-women-gun/index.html is a 6-shot Cylinder (firearms), cylinder double-action revolver designed and manufactured by the Ordnance Factories Organization in Kanpur, India. ...
, revolver named in tribute of the victim
* ''
Nirbhoya
''Nirbhoya'' is a 2018 Bengali film directed by Milan Bhowmik and produced by Sanjib Samaddar under the banner of Sambit Media and Productions. The film is based on the 2012 Delhi gang rape case. Apart from West Bengal, the film will also be ...
'', a Bengali film based on the incident
*
India's Daughter
''India's Daughter'' is a documentary film directed by Leslee Udwin and is part of the BBC's ongoing Storyville series. The film is based on the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder of 23-year-old "Nirbhaya", who was a physiotherapy student. The docu ...
, documentary about the incident
* ''
Priya's Shakti
''Priya's Shakti'' is a graphic novel by Ram Devineni and Dan Goldman, whose heroine, Priya, is a "modern-day female superhero", a rape survivor who rides a flying tiger. Issued in 2014, it was followed by ''Priya's Mirror'' (2016) and ''Priya an ...
''
*
Rape in India
Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. According to the 2021 annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 31,677 rape cases were registered across the country, or an average of 86 cases daily, a rise from 20 ...
*
Sexism in India
Gender inequality in India refers to the health, education, economic and political inequalities between men and women in India.
*
Slut-shaming
Slut-shaming is the practice of criticizing people, especially women and girls, who are perceived to violate expectations of behavior and appearance regarding issues related to sexuality. The term is used to reclaim the word ''slut'' and empower ...
*
Victim blaming
Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially at fault for the harm that befell them. There is historical and current prejudice against the victims of domestic violence and sex crimes, such as ...
*
Women in India
The status of women in India has been subject to many changes over the span of recorded Indian history. Their position in society deteriorated early in India's ancient period, especially in the Indo-Aryan speaking regions, and their subordinat ...
Rape crimes
*
Mathura rape case
The Mathura rape case was an incident of custodial rape in India on 26 March 1972, wherein Mathura, a young tribal girl, was allegedly raped by two policemen on the compound of Desaiganj Police Station in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra. After ...
, a 1972 custodial rape
*
1990 Bantala rape case, a 1990 rape-murder case
*
Priyadarshini Mattoo
Priyadarshini Mattoo (23 July 1970 – 23 January 1996) was a 25-year-old law student who was found raped and murdered at her house in New Delhi on 23 January 1996. On 17 October 2006, the Delhi High Court found Santosh Kumar Singh guilty on bot ...
, a 1996 rape-murder case
*
1998 Ajmer serial gang rapes case
*
Prathibha Srikanth Murthy
Prathibha Srikanth Murthy was a 28-year-old BPO employee of HP Globalsoft (the BPO arm of Hewlett-Packard), who was raped and killed on 13 December 2005, after leaving home for her night shift.
Significance of the case
Prathibha's murder on 13 ...
, a 2005 rape-murder case
*
Soumya murder case, a 2011 rape-murder case
*
2013 Mumbai gang rape
The 2013 Mumbai gang rape, also known as the Shakti Mills gang rape, refers to the incident in which a 22-year-old photojournalist, who was interning with an English-language magazine in Mumbai, was gang-raped by five people including a juvenile ...
*
2014 Badaun gang rape
*
Murder of Özgecan Aslan – psychology student murdered in a bus in February 2015
*
2015 Kandhamal gang rape case
Fifteen or 15 may refer to:
*15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16
*one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015
Music
*Fifteen (band), a punk rock band
Albums
* ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005
* ''15'' (Ani Lorak album) ...
*
2017 Unnao rape case
The Unnao rape case refers to the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl on 4 June 2017 in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, India. On 16 December 2019, former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was convicted for the rape on 20 December 2019 and sentenced to life impris ...
*
2019 Hyderabad gang rape
In November 2019, the gang rape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinary doctor in Shamshabad, near Hyderabad, sparked outrage across India. Her body was found in Shadnagar on 28 November 2019, the day after she was murdered. Four suspects were ar ...
*
Aruna Shanbaug case
Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug (1 June 1948 – 18 May 2015), was an Indian nurse who was at the centre of attention in a court case on euthanasia after spending nearly 42 years in a vegetative state as a result of sexual assault.
In 1973, while wo ...
– left in
vegetative state
A persistent vegetative state (PVS) or post-coma unresponsiveness (PCU) is a disorder of consciousness in which patients with severe brain damage are in a state of partial arousal rather than true awareness. After four weeks in a vegetative stat ...
after assault
References
External links
Fast-track courtsTimeline of the incident
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delhi gang rape and murder 2012
21st-century executions by India
2012 murders in Asia
2012 gang rape and murder
2012 murders in India
2010s trials
December 2012 crimes
December 2012 events in India
Gang rape in India
Incidents of violence against women
Kidnappings in India
2012 gang rape and murder
Murder trials
Rape in the 2010s
Trials in India
Violence against women in India
Rape in India
Women in Delhi