- By Abhinav Gupta
- Fri, 20 Mar 2020 06:08 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
New Delhi | Abhinav Gupta: Nirbhaya’s parents fought their pain and agony along with the judicial battle for seven long years and eventually justice was served to them and their deceased daughter as the four death-row convicts were hanged in Delhi's Tihar Jail at 5:30 am on March 20.
The 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in south Delhi by six persons before being thrown out on the road. She died on December 29, 2012 at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.
Days ago, Nirbhaya’s parents had spoken to Dainik Jagran’s digital journalist Abhinav Gupta when they had shared the torment they went through after losing their daughter and the hardships they faced during these tough seven years.
Here is a look back into what they had said about the country’s law and order and judiciary and how they will consider the hanging of the four culprits, who were not hanged at the time of the interview.
Seven years have passed and it is widely speculated that the four death-row convicts may be hanged anytime soon. What do you have to say about this?
Nirbhaya’s Mother: Fighting for all these years, we have realised that we committed a crime by going according to the system and standing against them (the accused). These seven years, we fought every single day. It’s been 2.5 years when the Supreme Court gave its verdict, 18 months since the review petition (filed by one of the accused) was cancelled. Today, after 18 months, he (accused Akshay Singh) filed a review petition with such an argument that he has made fun of the entire system and the government.
I don’t have any right because I am victim’s mother but he has challenged the entire system and yet his petition has been accepted. I was confident that even if the review petition was accepted, it will be rejected straight away. I had a feeling that now the day has come when Nirbhaya will get justice. Several people were saying that the accused will be hanged on December 16 (the day the incident took place). But, somewhere I was suspicious too as I have been a sufferer of this system from the last seven years. Now the Supreme Court has allotted December 17 to hear the review petition and here we are again late by one week.
(The review petition referred to here is the one filed by accused Akshay Singh, in which he sought review of the Supreme Court’s 2017 judgment awarding him death penalty. In his plea, which was rejected by the Supreme Court on December 19, Singh had questioned the capital punishment at a time life is getting "short" due to rising pollution. “Life is going short to short, then why death penalty,” the petition read.)
If the Supreme Court rejects the review petition and President rejects the mercy petition of the accused, the culprits may be hanged in the coming days. If this happens, will you consider it as justice?
Nirbhaya’s Mother: Yes. Even if it’s late, I will consider it as justice as we don’t have any other option. But it is said that justice delayed is justice denied. The most saddening thing is that, despite what happened with Nirbhaya in 2012 and the incidents which are taking place now, why is our system so helpless that such a heinous crime takes place and it takes so long for the system to prove them guilty.
Even when they have been proven guilty by the trial court, high court and Supreme Court, the top court gave two verdicts in this case and still it took 2.5 years to take them to the end result (execution). And even today, the court is listening to what he says. So we feel that our system is paralysed in front of the offenders. Such law has been made that it somewhere supports the culprit and leaves the victim in despair.
Whenever such an incident takes place, they start saying that we will make law, it will be time-bound, the system should be improved. When will the system improve? Till when will you keep shielding the culprits? So somewhere or the other, this is a loose point in our system and people like us will keep suffering till the time it remains.
We can understand the pain of losing your daughter. When this incident happened, how did you gather the strength to fight for justice?
Nirbhaya’s Mother: When this happened with our daughter and we went (to the hospital), we had no idea what had actually happened. When we got to know, we were not aware that something to this extent has happened. We saw her (Nirbhaya), there were cuts and injuries on her face and body and I thought that this is because of they (the perpetrators) had thrown her (out of the moving bus). But when she was operated on December 17 morning, the team of doctors told us what exactly had happened with her.
The senior doctor said that he had never seen such a case in his 20 years of his practice. He told that there was nothing left in the girl’s system. 20-22 feet intestine is present in a human body, but there wasn’t even a foot of it left in my daughter. That day itself, we were feared that she won’t survive. But it is said that hopes are alive till the last breath and this is what we had in mind. But those 12-13 days when she was alive, the biggest pain for us was that she starved for a single drop of water. We will never be able to forget all that. Whoever came to meet her wondered how she was alive.
The struggle that she went through and the pain that she suffered, despite all that, she didn’t cry before us. She solaced us that you don’t worry and everything will be alright. We got the strength from her fight and courage. Our daughter is our courage. We have been fighting with the strength she gave us and will keep fighting. Our fight will not stop at their hanging, instead I will keep fighting and raising my voice against such crimes for my entire life. But till the time these culprits are not hanged, we won’t stop and I am confident that they will be hanged one day.
There was nationwide outrage after this incident. Seeing this, the governments reviewed the anti-rape laws. Death penalty was added to the POCSO Act in July, 2019. According to you, what stricter laws the government should bring to stop such heinous crimes?
Nirbhaya’s Father: The laws which government made are very good and they are powerful too. But, they have not specified a time limit. We got the support of people and reached till here. But can a common man reach there? Leave Supreme Court, can people like us pay the fees even of high court lawyers? How will one fight when he cannot pay the fees of the lawyer? And the government lawyers don’t even talk to us. They say the law doesn’t allow us to talk to you.
Another thing is that when the case was pending in the Supreme Court for 2-2.5 years and we gave 2-3 letters in the court, they said that you are not a party in the case and it’s a police case. Then we had to become a party in the case. She was our daughter and we are no one in the case.
Such incidents take place only with the poor. How will they fight their case and who will support them? So, there are no lapses in the system but since there is no time limit specified in the laws, this is the reason behind the deplorable condition of the country.
Everyone across the country has his eyes on when the culrpits of Nirbhaya will be hanged. We know that the people of country will be more happy than us when they will be hanged.
Ever since this incident happened, what positive changes did you see in the judicial system and the law and order situation of the country?
We don’t think there have been any changes. We continue to suffer from the lacklustered behaviour of the system. And the system itself is unhappy. We are sad because she was our daughter but the people who are a part of the system are also sad because they are unable to do anything despite having all the power.
The four accused in the Hyderabad rape-murder case were killed in police encounter. What do you have say on this?
Nirbhaya's Mother: We are very happy and it was rightly done as they got killed, the decision taken by the police was exactly right, because they were not punished for the crime they committed. Instead, they were punished because despite being in police custody, they had the audacity to snatch police weapons and try to escape the custody.
If the police had not killed them, they themselves could have got killed or they (accused) would have managed to escape. Then we would have questioned that the police helped them flee away, so whatever happened was totally right. And I say that same should be done to other offenders too because our system remain unaffected by anything.
My seven years of experience says that when such a crime happens with a girl and she dies, or even if she remains alive, our entire system goes to the extent of trying to prove the culprits innocent. Seveal years pass by proving this, just like these 7 years passed by.
In this case, the crime took place in 2012 and it was proven in 2013 that they were the perpetrators. So this is due to the lapses of the system. The system is responsible for both -- the repeated crimes and the long-pending cases. Because they remain unaffected with what his happening in the society.
Other than the changes that you want to see in the judicial system and law and order of the country, how do you wish to see the society changing?
Nirbhaya’s Father: The society is awakened. People can do anything to save their daughters. Earlier, people used to stop their daughters from getting educated. Today, every person wants his daughter to get educated.
We have a request to our prime minister that like the slogan that he gave ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’, the time has come to save the daughters. Please do something, address the public on how such crimes can be stopped and please focus on this.
Seven years have gone. Do you think if a woman, who is out on the streets of Delhi late night, safe today?
Nirbhaya's Mother: No, not at all. Especially, when the girl is from a middle-class family and cannot afford the taxi fare and if she thinks of going home by an autorickshaw, then situation is same that was seven years ago. Today, daughters are not safe anywhere.
At that night, my daughter pleaded several autorickshaw drivers to drop her home but they said they will not get a customer from Dwarka, so we will not go. Even after that crime, had an autorickshaw dropped her home, we might not be fighting this case. Things remain unchanged even after that incident.