“What will they get by killing him?”: Ram Bai, mother of Nirbhaya convict Mukesh Singh

19 March 2020
Mange Lal, who is now deceased, and Ram Bai, the parents of Mukesh Singh, one of the convicts in the gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh, in December 2012, which came to be known as the Nirbhaya case. Mukesh and three other convicts are scheduled to be executed at 5.30 am on 20 March 2020.
Mansi Thapliyal / REUTERS
Mange Lal, who is now deceased, and Ram Bai, the parents of Mukesh Singh, one of the convicts in the gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh, in December 2012, which came to be known as the Nirbhaya case. Mukesh and three other convicts are scheduled to be executed at 5.30 am on 20 March 2020.
Mansi Thapliyal / REUTERS

Sixty-eight-year old Ram Bai reached Delhiʼs Tihar Jail at around 4.30 pm on 19 March, expecting to meet her son, Mukesh, for the last time. Less than two hours earlier, a Delhi court had refused to stay the execution of her son. He is scheduled to be hanged at 5.30 am on 20 March.

Ram Bai, a frail old woman of less than five feet, seemed crushed by the finality of the decision. She was sobbing. “It's just that I had hoped for so long, so long,” she said, as tears streamed down her cheeks, and fell on the frayed shawl wrapped around her. “What will they get by killing him, tell me? What will they get? They took away my other son, my husband … Now what will they get by taking him away too?”

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Surabhi Kanga is the web editor at The Caravan.

Keywords: Delhi gang-rape mercy petition death penalty
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