The phrase “a tsunami of shock” would be apt. This was used by the Supreme Court to describe the aftermath of the 2012 gang rape in Delhi, when one girl was raped, sodomised and brutally assaulted by a group of six males, of which one was juvenile. Four of those men have now been sentenced to death. The fifth died in jail, while the juvenile served three years in a remand home and was then released.
There was no other way to close the lid on this case, other than to sentence the accused to death. This was no ordinary rape, not that rape is ever ordinary. The details of this case are too dark to be recounted time and again, but it’s safe to say, with utter conviction, that these men deserved to be put to death.
There are many who advocate putting an end to the death penalty, for various reasons, chief among them being that it is not a deterrent as the irrational human beings who commit crimes on this level are uneducated and hence unaware of the consequences of their actions, and that it is not morally right to put someone to death. But, in a country that is reeling from insensitivity with regards to crimes against women, this is only the beginning. It may not be a deterrent yet, but it needs to become that.
The three judges of the Supreme Court were reported as saying, “If ever a case called for a hanging, this was it,” also using the words “gross”, “sadistic”, and “beastly” in their long verdict. This is where the fight for severe penalties in rape cases gets stronger. If it had been just rape, which is brutal enough as it is, a woman’s spirit can be revived. But in a case which has been described as “gruesome”, there had to be only one outcome. In the words of the brave girl from that night who died not too long after, “They should be hanged or burned alive.” Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh got what was coming to them.
Millions of men who have raped and who are raping women everyday should be scared, because they will soon get their just desserts too. The juvenile, who was rehabilitated by an NGO and is now working as a cook in South India, under the watchful eye of the police, got away despite many calls to have his name released. He was actually the worst of them all, escaping penalties due to his age. There are many amendments and inclusions that need to be done in rape laws, but for now, we’ll settle for the fact that the poor girl from the night of December 16, 2012 got her justice.
