‘Our system supports criminals’: Delhi 2012 gangrape victim’s mother after court defers convicts’ execution

The mother of the 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder victim said on Monday the delay in the execution of the four convicts in the case was the “failure of the system and government”.

“Why is the court taking so much time to execute its own order to hang the convicts? Repeated postponing of the execution shows the failure of our system. Our entire system supports criminals,” the mother was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The mother of the 23-year-old woman, who has been present in courts for all hearings in the case, said she will not be relieved until the men who raped and killed her daughter are hanged.

Also read: Court stays execution of Delhi gangrape convicts as mercy plea pending

“The government has to answer to the court that why there was a delay in execution of the convicts,” she added.

Her comments came after a local court in Delhi stayed the execution of the convicts for the third time, hours before the four were scheduled to be hanged at Tihar Jail at 6am on Tuesday.

Judge Dharmendra Rana ruled that a last-minute mercy petition filed by Pawan Gupta - the last of the four to file the plea - is still pending with Rashtrapati Bhavan.

“I am of the opinion that the death sentence cannot be executed pending the disposal of the mercy petition of the convict. It is hereby directed that the execution of death warrants against all the convicts scheduled for 03.03.2020 at 6 am if deferred till further orders,” the judge said in his order.

The court had first issued the death warrant against the four convicts on January 7, 2020, and scheduled their execution on January 22. The execution date was postponed twice, first to February 1 and then to March 3.

Also read: Judge refuses to stop execution of 4 Delhi gangrape convicts, gets another plea

The four convicts—Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Kumar Gupta (25), Akshay Thakur (31) and Vinay Sharma (26)—are on death row for the gang-rape and assault of her daughter inside a moving bus on December 16, 2012.

The young woman died in a hospital in Singapore on December 29, 2012.