The execution of four men convicted of the brutal gang-rape and murder of a student on a New Delhi bus in 2012 was indefinitely postponed by a court on Monday.
The special court last month ruled the men were to be hanged on Tuesday, but postponed the execution after one of them filed a mercy plea — the last remedy for death row convicts in India — to the president. “The execution has been deferred till further notice,” defence lawyer A.P. Singh told reporters outside the court in the capital. What was the case? Six people — five men and one juvenile — were charged with the attack on Jyoti Singh in a case that made headlines around the world and triggered massive nationwide protests. The 23-year-old student was attacked while returning home after watching a movie with a friend in December 2012. Her assailants took turns to rape and violate her with a metal rod as the bus drove around Delhi, before dumping her and her friend, who was beaten up, on the road. She died of her injuries nearly a fortnight after the attack in a Singapore hospital where she had been flown for specialist treatment. Tens of thousands of Indians took to the streets in protest, and the case led to a major overhaul of laws surrounding sexual assault. It also spawned an award-winning documentary as well as a Netflix series.