"I came home and hugged a portrait of my daughter. I told her, you have got justice," an emotional Asha Devi said on Friday soon after four men convicted of gang rape and murder of her daughter, who came to be known as 'Nirbhaya' or the fearless, were executed here.
She said justice was "delayed but not denied" and women will definitely feel safer now while Nirbhaya's father Badrinath Singh wanted the day to be observed as 'Nirbhaya Nyay Diwas' (Day of Justice).
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"After a long agonising wait, my daughter has got justice. Justice has finally been done. We will continue the fight for justice for India's daughters," she said as the execution came seven years after the gruesome incident that rocked the conscience of the country and led to stricter anti-rape laws.
"We will request the Supreme Court to issue guidelines so that no one can adopt delaying tactics in such cases in future," she said. Three death warrants issued since this January could not be executed as the four convicts -- Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) -- approached courts arguing they have not exhausted all legal remedies.
She said their faith in Constitution and judicial system were "getting shaken" but that trust has been restored and the execution would send a stern warning to criminals.
Nirbhaya was gang-raped in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16, 2012, by six men and she succumbed to her injuries in a hospital in Singapore, where she was flown. One of the six, Ram Singh, was found hanging in Tihar Jail while a minor was released after serving a three-year sentence in a juvenile home.
Asha Devi said women would definitely feel safer after this hanging of the four men. "After the Supreme Court hearing last night, I came home and hugged a portrait of my daughter and told her - 'beti nyay dila diya tumko' (you have got justice)," Asha Devi said.
Like Nirbhaya's father, she wanted to March 20 should be observed as Nirbhaya Nyay Diwas (Day of justice). "This day will be written in history books," she said.
Badrinath Singh said he and his wife haven't slept the whole night. "Our wait for justice was painful and agonising," he said.