Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Thakur are at immediate risk of being hanged after they were convicted for the rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi in 2012. The President of India has rejected the mercy petition of Mukesh and Vinay.
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Ram Nath Kovind
President of India
Rashtrapati Bhavan,
New Delhi, 110004
INDIA
Email: [email protected]
Ambassador Amit Kumar
Embassy of India
2107 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington DC 20008
Phone: 202 939 7000 I Fax: 202 265 4351
Twitter: @IndianEmbassyUS @KumarAmitMEA
Facebook: @IndiaInUSA
Instagram: @indianembassyus
Salutation: Dear Ambassador
Dear President of India,
I ask for your urgent intervention to halt the executions and commute the death sentences of Mukesh Singh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharma and Akshay Thakur.
The four men are at immediate risk of being hanged after being convicted for the gangrape and murder of the 23-year-old woman in New Delhi in 2012. The crime of which they are convicted was extremely violent and shocked people all around the world. While I feel the utmost sympathy for the family of victim and in no way wish to further their suffering, I appeal to you to halt the cycle of violence and stop the executions. I oppose the death penalty in all cases, as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
Executions do not eradicate violence against women. There is no evidence to show that the death penalty acts as a unique deterrent. Instead, I call on you to put pressure on the Government of India to allocate adequate resources for the effective implementation of laws, improve conviction rates and ensure certainty of justice in all cases, through fair proceedings and without resort to the death penalty.
Even the Justice Verma Committee, whose recommendations were relied upon to reform laws on sexual assault and rape in the aftermath of the Nirbhaya case, opposed imposing the death penalty in cases of rape. India has not hanged anyone since 2015, and I implore you to ensure that this hiatus in executions continues by commuting the death sentences imposed on the four men.
Yours sincerely,
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