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Status: 20.03.2020 09:07 a.m.
By Silke Diettrich, ARD Studio New Delhi
Executions are not public in India. Nevertheless, many people gathered in front of the New Delhi prison early in the morning, as can be seen on television pictures. Shortly before the execution, they count down and cheer.
At 5.30 a.m. the four rapists are said to have died in the rope. Among the people standing in front of the prison are the victim's parents. They have often performed in public for more than seven years, as they say, to do justice to their daughter.
"When something happens to a woman or girl like our daughter, parents tend to hide it," says Badrinath Singh, the young student's father. "Because they feel ashamed or think that their daughter will no longer be able to marry. That's not a good thing." If the parents are strong and publicly say that their daughter has been wronged, then society is behind them and the jurisdiction also supports them.
The student's parents (center) celebrate the execution of the perpetrators in New Delhi.
The four men had raped the 23-year-old so brutally in a bus in 2012 that she died of her injuries almost two weeks later. Mass rape had stirred India up. Thousands of people took to the streets again and again - to demonstrate for the safety of women in the country, but also to demand that the perpetrators should be hanged promptly.
Justice is only given when the death penalty is carried out. This is the opinion of many of the demonstrators who had often taken to the streets before the execution date. Because the enforcement of the judgment was postponed again and again.
"We are asking the judges to hang her. Yes, hang her," said one of the protesters in New Delhi. "If you don't do that, you can hand over the rapists to us and we'll punish them ourselves."
A few months ago, a woman in southern India had been raped by several men. Shortly afterwards, police shot the four detained men who allegedly tried to escape.
Even if this led to many discussions in the country, the police officers were celebrated by many for their actions. The mother of the medical student from New Delhi had repeatedly made public demonstrations that the perpetrators had to be hanged:
"The crime committed on my daughter still makes me very sad. I would be a proud mother whose daughter would have been a doctor. But I am proud today that I gave birth to her and the whole world gave birth to her by the name given to her. Nirbhaya the fearless. I couldn't save her life, but I did fight for justice. My duties as a mother are fulfilled today. "
Penalties for rape in India have been tightened since the crime. If the victim dies, the perpetrators can be sentenced to death. It has taken more than seven years for the rapists to face the death penalty today.
India is debating whether the death penalty is actually a deterrent to potential perpetrators. Convicted people are rarely hanged. Before the execution today, a terrorist was last stranded in India in 2015.
