All the four convicts of Nirbhaya were hanged at 5:30 am today.
Seven years after a young medical student was gang-raped and tortured on a moving bus in Delhi, four of her killers were hanged at 5.30 am on Friday. The pre-dawn execution took place less than two hours after the Supreme Court dismissed the final petition of the convicts.
Here is a timeline of the case:
December 16, 2012 - A 23-year-old physiotherapy student was brutally raped on a moving bus in Munirka in New Delhi. She and her male companion were tortured - a metal pipe was pushed into her abdomen, and a large section of her intestine was pulled out. She was thrown on the roadside and left for dead. Five men and a juvenile were arrested for the crime
December 29, 2012 - The victim dies in a hospital in Singapore after battling serious internal injuries
Protests erupt across India, calling out government indifference, gaps in law-enforcement and rising sexual crimes against women.
January 17, 2013 - A fast-track court begins proceedings against the five men and one juvenile in the case.
March 11, 2013 - Ram Singh, one of the main accused in the case and the driver of the bus, is found hanging in his prison cell.
April 2, 2013 - A tough new anti-rape law is passed, making stalking a crime and introducing the death sentence for convicted rapists.
September 2013 - The fast-track court sentences all four adult men to death in the case. The juvenile accused is remanded to a three-year term in a detention centre and is released in 2015, after serving his term.
May 5, 2017 - Supreme Court upholds the death penalty of the four remaining convicts. The men file review petitions challenging the order.
January 17, 2020 - President Ram Nath Kovind rejects their pleas for mercy.
March 20, 2020 - The four men are hanged at dawn in New Delhi's Tihar prison.