Nirbhaya’s Mother Rues ‘Politics’ Over Hanging, Reminds PM of Vow

Asha Devi reminded PM Modi of his 2014 election slogan “Bahut hua naari par vaar, Ab ki baar Modi Sarkaar.”

Nirbhaya’s Mother Asha Devi

(Photo: The Quint)

Amid uncertainty over whether the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder convicts will be hanged to death on 22 January, the victim's mother Asha Devi on Friday, 17 January, said the ‘people who hit the roads in 2012 are now looking for political gains’.

She also made an appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that the convicts are executed on 22 January, reminding him of 2014 election slogan “Bahut hua naari par vaar, Ab ki baar Modi Sarkaar” (Enough with atrocities on women, it’s time to vote for a Modi government.)

"They are making a mockery out of my daughter's death. One party is blaming someone for delaying the process, while the the other is asking for jurisdiction over the police force," she said in an apparent reference to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party.

“I must say that these people have stalled the hanging for their own gains and have used us as a pawn,” she added.

She then went on to make an appeal to PM Modi, referring to the slogan and asked him to 'amend' the laws to ensure that the death sentence is carried out on 22 January.

Despite the issue of a warrant of execution by the Patiala House court on 7 January, it appears the men convicted in the case, will now not be executed at 7 am on 22 January, as the court had directed.

Here is an explainer on why the hanging is likely to be postponed and what the course of action now looks like.