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Nirbhaya gets justice, but

2.4 lakh are still waiting

ustice has prevailed after a Uttar Pradesh tops the list pending rape and POCSO (Prevention
long and constant legal battle of Children from sexual offences) cases
in the most-awaited Nirbhaya with 66,994 outstanding in various courts across India. Accord-
rape and murder case. All the crime cases against women, ing to the government data there are
J four convicts were executed on while Maharashtra has total 2,44,001 pending rape and POCSO
March 20. With this, after an ex- cases in India as on December 2019.
tensive wait of seven years, justice has more than 21,690 pending Uttar Pradesh is at the top of the list
finally been delivered to the 23-year- files, reports madiha raza having 66,994 outstanding cases while
old physiotherapy intern who was sav- Maharashtra has total 21691 pending
agely brutalised in an empty moving cases, whereas 20511 cases are pending
bus in a South Delhi neighbourhood. in West Bengal. Madhya Pradesh has
With numerous loopholes in our legal dawn for daughters of India. The beasts 19981 cases. Rajasthan holds the count
system, the long fight of the two brave have been hanged,” she went home and of 11,159 cases. The number of pending
women Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi hugged her daughter’s photo. cases raise a question mark on govern-
and lawyer Seema Kushwaha has been With the hanging of the four ment’s ambitious “Beti Bachao, Beti
won. convicts, Nirbhaya got justice but Padhao” campaign?
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar what about so many other Nirb- NCRB data further suggests — each
Prasad said, “It’s a day of satisfaction hayas in the country who are still fourth rape victim across the country
that a daughter, who underwent so waiting for justice. Reason, since in 2018 was a minor, while more than
much pain, has got justice,” Prasad told decades, Indian legal system is fac- 50 per cent of them fell in the age cat-
reporters in Parliament. “It’s time for ju- ing huge backlog of such cases. The egory of 18 to 30 years. The statistics re-
diciary, government and civil society to experts say that the number of such leased on January 9, 2020 highlight the
introspect whether death-row convicts pending cases are alarming and raise poor state of law and order situation
can be allowed to manipulate system concern for the government as well as throughout the country with 378,277
and cause delay.” for the judicial system of the country. cases of crime reported against women
The hanging of the four convicts- The government has revealed a in 2018. The data showed Uttar Pradesh
Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), shocking statistic of large number of having the most number of cases relat-
Vinay Sharma (26) and Ak-
shay Kumar Singh (31) was
carried out at 5:30 in Tihar
Jail. A hanging was carried
out as per the schedule after
a three- judge Supreme Court
bench rejected the final plea
by the convict’s lawyer. With
the execution of death pen-
alty of Nirbhaya case convicts
a sense of relief can be felt
across the country but the
state of pending cases of rape
across the country tells a dif-
ferent story. Around 2.45 lakhs
Nirbhaya’s are there who are
still waiting for justice.
After the Supreme Court’s
verdict, the mother of the
young woman Asha Devi said
— “We all have waited so long
for this day. Today is a new

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