4 men convicted in India’s gang rape case behind Netflix’s series to be hanged on February 1, SEVEN YEARS after verdict

The men who gang raped and killed a female student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012 will face punishment eight years later, after exhausting all legal options to delay execution. The grizzly case inspired a Netflix miniseries.

The four males were set to be hanged on January 22, but one of them filed a ‘mercy plea’ earlier this week in a desperate attempt to win more time, the latest in a series of appeals. With the request rejected, however, there seem to be no more obstacles for the verdict to run its course. 

Six people were initially charged with the crime, but one of them committed suicide in his cell, while another was released after three years due to being a juvenile.

Local media reported that a dummy execution was recently staged at the prison where the convicts are being held in preparation for the upcoming hanging, in order to test the gallows.

But the family of the victim, Jyoti Singh, who was later dubbed 'Nirbhaya' (fearless') in India, said they weren’t sure that the execution will happen.

Speaking to journalists outside the courthouse on Friday, Jyoti’s mother said she and other relatives were fed up with all the setbacks, stating “we have struggled for seven years to get justice for our daughter.”

Though the men were sentenced to death in 2013, they have since used “all sorts of delaying tactics” to postpone their punishment, the mother said, adding “We won’t be satisfied until they are hanged.

In December 2012, Singh, who was 23, was returning from the movies with a male friend on a New Delhi city bus when they were attacked by a gang of men. The assailants beat up Jyoti’s companion and then took turns raping the woman before violating her with a metal rod.

The victim died 12 days later in hospital from severe internal injuries, with her shocking story making headlines worldwide. It would later inspire an award-winning documentary and a 'Delhi Crime' miniseries on Netflix.

Thousands took to the streets across India to show their outrage in the wake of the horrific attack, with mass protests prompting a tightening of sexual assault laws in the country.

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