Four men were hanged at Tihar Jail in the Indian capital, New Delhi, on Friday for the brutal gang rape and murder of a woman in 2012, an official confirmed.

The case shamed and outraged the nation and sparked a debate over capital punishment and women's safety in India.

On December 16, 2012, the men brutally raped the woman, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, on a moving bus in New Delhi, during which they used a metal pipe to inflict massive internal injuries to her.

Read more: What is behind India's rape problem?

Protests erupted nationwide after the women died in a Singapore hospital two weeks after the rape. In April 2013, India passed a tough new anti-rape law that made stalking a crime and introduced a death sentence for convicted rapists.

The parents of the victim had consistently called for capital punishment of the four perpetrators. The men were sentenced to death in September of 2013, five months after the new anti-rape law was passed.

The execution was delayed four times as the convicts appealed the verdict. India's Supreme Court ultimately upheld the sentence against the men.

Friday's executions are only the fourth time Indian state has carried out capital punishment since 2004.

dv/dr (dpa, Reuters)

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