DCW chief Swati Maliwal writes to Narendra Modi, says 'system making criminals confident', even five years after Delhi gangrape

New Delhi: Lamenting the “delay” in carrying out sentence of 16 December gang-rape and murder incident, Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal on Saturday claimed the long-winding legal process allowed the criminals to feel they can get away with such heinous crimes. She urged the prime minister to bring in a legislation wherein at least those convicted of raping minors are given death penalty within six months. Nirbhaya, a paramedical student, was brutally gang-raped on the intervening night of 16 December, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. The incident took place while she was returning with a friend after watching a movie. [caption id=“attachment_3268802” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Swati Maliwal. PTI[/caption] She died 13 days after the incident at a hospital in Singapore. Of the six men arrested in the case, one of the accused Ram Singh hanged himself in prison in March 2013, while another man, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was convicted in August. In 2016, he was released from the correction home after serve the maximum sentence of three years in a reform home. The other four—Akshay, Vinay Sharma, Pawan and Mukesh—were found guilty and sentenced to death by the Delhi High Court in September 2013. The Supreme Court also upheld the high court’s decision. “It’s the fifth anniversary of the Nirbhaya incident and the fact is that nothing has changed in this country. Everyday girls and women are being brutally raped in this country,” she said. Maliwal also highlighted the need for having fast-track courts in the city so that rapists are punished forthwith. Also, there is a need to upgrade the delivery mechanism of the forensic department as well as the accountability of the police, she said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “The system has made the criminals confident enough to believe that they can get away with any crime perpetrated against a woman or a child. “It is very unfortunate that even Nirbhaya herself has not got justice in this country. Nirbhaya’s mother is still running from pillar to post in order to ensure that her beloved daughter can get justice,” Maliwal said. The DCW chief said that at least in case of rape of minor girls, there should be a law in this country in which such rapists should be punished and given death penalty within six months. She also made an appeal to the prime minister to constitute a high-level committee on women’s safety in Delhi, having the Union home minister, the lieutenant governor, the chief minister, the police commissioner and the DCW representatives as its members, to take effective decisions on issues of women’s safety. Drawing the prime minister’s attention to the Nirbhaya fund, which has remained unutilised till date, Maliwal urged him to devolve the fund immediately to the states failing which the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme will lose its relevance.