The rape and murder of the girl known as Nirbhaya sparked protests in India and led to a tightening of the law. (CNN) — The Supreme Court rejected the petition for clemency filed by three of the convicts in the infamous gang rape that took place in New Delhi in 2012. The incident that shocked the country six years ago came to a conclusion today with the mother of the victim (also known as Nirbhaya, which means fearless) thanking the Supreme Court for justice, even though it was delayed. “Till they are hanged, she and other girls won’t get justice. Not just Nirbhaya, other girls in this country should get justice,” said Asha Devi, the victim’s mother. Three of the convicts, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh had filed a clemency plea with the Supreme Court last year. The fourth death-row convict, Akshay Thakur is expected to file his review petition next week with the court. CNN The victim's mother, Asha Devi said her daughter won't get justice until those who rapes and killed her are hanged. The defense lawyer for two of the petitioners, A.P., Singh insisted that his clients had cause for filing a curative petition. A curative petition is the final legal recourse that can be filed if the defense counsel can show discrepancy in the judgment. Singh said there was no merit in the conviction, which he blamed on media pressure and public sentiment. The four men had been convicted and sentenced to death by the Delhi High Court in 2013 but had approached the Supreme Court appealing that decision. The Supreme Court had upheld the lower court’s judgment in May 2017. During the course of the trial, one of the perpetrators, Ram Singh, had committed suicide in prison in 2013. Another attacker was ruled to be a juvenile and was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention. Incident On the evening of December 16, 2012, the victim and a male friend were heading home from a South Delhi movie theater after watching the movie, “Life of Pi.” They boarded a private bus and within a few minutes were accosted by the men travelling in the bus alongside them. Six men separated the victims and the woman was taken to the rear of the bus and repeatedly raped. The male friend was incapacitated and beaten with iron rods. According to the police, the men took turns raping the woman and beat her with an iron rod as they drove around the city. The ordeal lasted for half an hour and the two were thrown from the bus and left on the side of the road. A police patrol vehicle found them and immediately took them to a hospital. The woman’s injuries were severe, and several internal organs were damaged. Eleven days later, she was transported to Singapore for further treatment and died on December 29, 2012, of multiple organ failure. Outrage The rape of the 23-year-old student had shaken the national capital and within days resulted in massive protests across the country. Thousands of people stormed the streets demanding safety for women and justice for the victim. The protests led to tighter laws. Capital punishment was introduced in the “rarest of rare” rape cases. Punishment for offenses like stalking, molestation and sexual harassment was raised. India now The tightening of laws has not resulted in much change in the crime statistics. In 2016, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, the total number of rape cases registered across the country was over 55,000. In April, protests broke out again in India over the rape of an 8-year-old girl in Jammu. The lifeless body of the girl, who was drugged and gang-raped in January by eight men, was found five days after she disappeared in January. The incident pushed the Indian government to frame a temporary law that awards capital punishment to rapists of minor girls or for those accused in gang rapes. The eight men are currently on trial for the rape and murder of a minor.<doc-sep>NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s Supreme Court on Monday upheld the death penalty for three men convicted in the gang rape of a young woman in Delhi in 2012, a landmark case that brought an unprecedented level of attention to violence against women in the country. FILE PHOTO: A television journalist sets his camera inside the premises of the Supreme Court in New Delhi February 18, 2014. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee/File photo The brutal rape of the 23-year-old medical student, who died of her injuries, had sparked nationwide outrage and forced changes in the law. But six years later, there are few signs that sexual violence against women is abating. In 2016, there were around 40,000 rapes reported in India - up 60 percent from 2012, according to government data, and more cases go unreported, activists say. “Crimes against women will keep on rising unless the criminals are sent to the gallows,” the father of the victim, who cannot be named under Indian law, told reporters after the Supreme Court ruling. A three-member bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra dismissed petitions filed by the men to review a 2017 order by the top court, which had confirmed the death penalty given to them by the Delhi High Court. “There is no merit in the petitions,” said Justice Ashok Bhushan, who read out the judgment. The three men - Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh - had asked the Supreme Court to consider less severe punishment. A fourth man, Akshay Thakur, did not petition the court to review his death sentence. Following the 2012 case, India launched fast-track courts and a tougher rape law in April this year that included the death penalty for rape of girls below 12. Nevertheless, more rape cases have come to light since then, and it remains hard for victims to receive timely justice. The conviction rate of people arrested for rape was 25 percent in 2016, while the backlog of rape cases pending trial stood at more than 133,000 by the end of that year, up from about 100,000 in 2012.<doc-sep>
India's Supreme Court on Monday upheld death sentences for three men convicted for the gang rape and murder of a young woman in the capital New Delhi in 2012. "There is no merit in the petitions," said Justice Ashok Bhushan, who read out the judgment. Jyoti Singh, a physiotherapy student, was on a bus home from the cinema with a male friend when she was raped and thrown off the bus by a gang of five men and a teenager. The gang beat the man unconscious before raping and torturing 23-year-old Singh with an iron bar as the private bus drove loops through the Indian capital. After 45 minutes she was then dumped on the street with horrific internal injuries, dying as a result of them 13 days later in a Singapore hospital. Singh survived long enough to be able to identify her attackers and following a seven-month trial, four of the men were convicted in September 2013 for murder, gang rape, theft, conspiracy and "unnatural acts." The four men have maintained their innocence but only three appealed to have their death sentences lifted. Their legal avenues for appeal are not yet exhausted. A fifth man, who was the suspected leader of the group, was found dead in prison in what is thought to be a suicide, while a 17-year-old was sentenced to three years in a detention center and has since been released. 'A great message' The gang rape sparked demonstrations attended by tens of thousands of people in Delhi and across India, which led to harsher sentences for sex crimes, including the death penalty. Singh's parents on Monday welcomed the ruling, with her mother Asha Singh saying it was "very happy news." "It's a great message for the entire society. This verdict is meant for society, women and all of us," Singh's father told reporters. India has seen a swathe of sex crimes over the past few months, including attacks on children. The gang rape of an eight-year-old girl from a Muslim nomadic community in January has sparked more protests. The girl from the northern Jammu region died after she was kidnapped, drugged and gang raped by several men for days at a Hindu temple. India is one of the countries that still permits capital punishment, typically hanging those sentenced to death. The law was inherited from Britain during Imperial rule. law/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters)