Delhi Commission for Women Chief Swati MaliwaI (Photo Credit: File Image)
New Delhi:
After Delhi Court issued a black warrant to execute the four men who raped ‘Nirbhaya’ on December 22, Delhi Commission for Women Chief Swati Maliwal welcomed the decision and said it’s a victory for all the 'Nirbhayas' living in this country. “I salute Nirbhaya's parents who fought for 7 long years. Why has it taken 7yrs to punish these people? Why can't this time period be reduced?,” Swati Maliwal said.
Earlier, Swati Maliwal had sat on a hunger demanding death penalty for rapists of minors and setting up of fast-track courts across the country to try rape cases, along with other demands. According to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2018, new fast-track courts will be set up to deal with rape cases and special forensic kits will be provided to all police stations and hospitals in the long run
The minimum punishment in case of rape of women has been increased from rigorous imprisonment of seven years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment. In case of rape of a girl under 16 years, the minimum punishment has been increased from 10 to 20 years, extendable to life imprisonment
The punishment for gangrape of a girl below 16 years will invariably be imprisonment for the rest of life, the officials said. Stringent punishment for rape of a girl under 12 years has been provided with the minimum jail term being 20 years which may go up to life in prison or death sentence, they added
Ending her fast, Maliwal said, "Every day children aged three, four or six years are getting raped in a brutal manner. I wrote letters and issued notices. I even submitted 5.5 lakh letters written by citizens to the prime minister, but in vain
"After which, I decided to sit on a hunger strike. There was no strategy, but gradually people joined the movement across the country. It gained such a momentum that the prime minister after returning to India had to make an amendment in the law. I congratulate the people of India for this victory," she said.
The four rapists will be hanged at 7 am on 22 January, the court ordered earlier today.
The trial court had completed the trial and delivered its guilty verdict within a year. But it was much later that the high court confirmed the death penalty. To recall, in 2017, the Supreme Court rejected the first set of appeals against the conviction.
Judge Satish Kumar Arora issued the warrant at the request of the police and the victim’s mother who had celebrated the top court’s 2017 verdict rejecting an appeal against the death sentence as “justice at last.
