Nirbhaya convicts manipulated system to delay capital punishment, says Ravi Shankar Prasad

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday said that Nirbhaya convicts manipulated the system to delay capital punishment for seven years.

"All criminals who committed one of the most reprehensible crimes have been given capital punishment. I wish this could have been done earlier," said Prasad.

"Today is also the day to reflect by the judiciary, government, civil society that should some people convicted of capital punishment be allowed to manipulate the system to delay it for seven years," he added.

The four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case were hanged to death at 5:30 a.m. in Delhi's Tihar jail on Friday.

The hanging was carried out as per schedule after a three-judge Supreme Court bench rejected the final plea by the convicts' lawyer AP Singh to stay their execution in a late-night hearing.

The four convicts, along with two others including Ram Singh and a juvenile, had raped and brutally tortured a 23-year-old paramedic student on a moving bus in south Delhi on the night of December 16, 2012. The victim died a few days later after battling for life at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital and later at a Singapore hospital.

The case had created an uproar across the country, especially in Delhi where a large number of people came out on the streets, demanding justice for the victim, who was renamed as 'Nirbhaya' or the fearless.