People celebrate hanging of Nirbhaya convicts, burn 'Repasura' effigy at Hyderabad temple

People celebrated the hanging of Nirbhaya gang-rape convicts by burning the 11 feet tall effigy named 'Repasura' (demon of rape) at Chilkur Balaji temple here on Friday.

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], Mar 21 : People celebrated the hanging of Nirbhaya gang-rape convicts by burning the 11 feet tall effigy named 'Repasura' (demon of rape) at Chilkur Balaji temple here on Friday.

All four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case -- Akshay Singh Thakur, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, and Mukesh Singh -- were hanged to death at 5:30 am on Friday.

Rangarajan, the priest hailed it as Diwali celebration.

"If one Narakasura's death is Diwali, this is four times Diwali because four demons were killed. These rapists had misused and abused the law and the judicial system. This is the right time to set things right and plug all the loopholes," Rangarajan said on Friday.

The priest believes legislations alone cannot ensure women safety.

"We need a society where every citizen takes up the role of Jatayu in the Ramayana, who puts up a valiant fight against Ravana to save Sita Mata. We have several legislations for the safety of women but they alone cannot come to the rescue of women from perverts. We need to counsel our youth to be saviors and not demons," Rangarajan said.

The case pertains to the brutal gang-rape and killing of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in the national capital. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.

One of the adults accused had allegedly committed suicide in the prison during the trial, while the juvenile was released from a correction home after a period of three years.

The Hyderabad City had witnessed another heinous crime last year on November 27, when a doctor was brutally gang-raped and killed by four persons before they burnt her body in the Shamshabad area.

The accused were killed by the police when they tried to escape while being taken to the crime spot.

( With inputs from ANI )