Justice was delayed but not denied: Nirbhaya's father

As the Supreme Court on Friday awarded death sentence to four Nirbhaya case convicts, her parents welcomed the verdict saying that they are very happy that the judiciary understood the pain of their daughter, adding that justice was delayed but not denied.

Nirbhaya's father told ANI, "It is a victory for my family, I am very happy with the judgement. Although it was late but at least justice was given."

Expressing similar sentiments, Nirbhaya's mother Asha Devi told ANI,"I am thankful to everybody who supported us in our fight against justice. This is just not our victory. This is everybody's victory."

Devi asserted that they were hopeful that justice would take place, adding that the apex court would award death sentence to the guilty.

"No doubt our law and order situation is weak but we are hopeful that after the Supreme Court's verdict people will be scared to do such barbaric act," she added.

Earlier, the trial court had sentenced all the four convicts to death penalty.

Justice Dipak Misra upheld rape as depravity and not curable and recently passed a woman friendly judgment saying that "no woman can be compelled to love; she always has right to say no".

In December, 2012, six people gang raped a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern in a moving bus. The woman succumbed to her injuries in a Singapore hospital on December 29, 2012.

One of the accused, Ram Singh hanged himself in prison, while another person, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was convicted in August last year and will serve the maximum sentence of three years in a reform home.

However, convict lawyer A.P. Singh claimed that he will file the review petition after reading the order.

"Justice is not done. We will file review petition after reading the order. You cannot give a death sentence to anyone for a message to the nation. The meaning of punishment is improvement. There is a right to live. In this, the human rights have been neglected, Mahatma Gandhi's ideology has been neglected as this is violence," Singh said.

The matter was heard by the apex court bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra and consisting of Justices R. Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan.

The convicts - Akshay, Pawan, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh - challenged the Delhi High Court order which had sentenced them to the gallows.