Image: EPA
An Indian woman who was gang-raped and severely beaten on a bus in New Delhi recently passed away in Singapore. The 23-year old medical student who was also thrown out of the moving bus two weeks ago, was recently flown to Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore by the Indian government for specialist treatment.
Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, “We are saddened to lear that she has succumbed to her injuries, and would like to extend our deepest condolences to her family during this time of bereavement”.
The young woman had been in critical condition, her vital signs soon deteriorated. She suffered from severe organ failure following serious injuries to her body and brain. (Source)
The brutal act against her has sparked public uproar in India, especially among women’s rights activists. It is said that most rapes and other sex crimes in India go unreported and offenders are hardly ever punished.
Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh hopes to make India a “demonstrably better and safer place for women to live in”. (Source)
UPDATE: Five men have been formally charged in court with the gang rape, criminal conspiracy, and murder, with the sixth to be tried separately in juvenile court as he is only 17 years old. The accused admitted to torturing and raping her “to teach her a lesson” because she initially fought back and bit three of them. His maximum sentence would be three years in a reform facility. The men charged were Ram Singh, the bus driver; his brother Mukesh Singh, Pavan Gupta, Akshay Singh, and Vinay Sharma.
The father of the victim said he backed calls for the attackers to be executed. “The whole country is demanding that these monsters be hanged. I am with them”.
The death of the 23-year old medical student has caused an uproar among the women of India, and during a protest recently, an 18-year old female student said, “A very strict punishment …that all men of India should be aware that they are not going to treat the women like the way they treated her.” (Source)
UPDATE (11/3): It was reportedly that the driver of the bus in which a young Indian woman was gang-raped and fatally injured in December hanged himself in New Delhi’s Tihar jail on Monday. The dramatic twist in a case has provoked outrage across India. (Source)
UPDATE (11/9): An Indian court have convicted the four men on all charges for raping and murdering the 23-year-old student. The men, Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Kumar Singh, all in their 20s, will face a maximum punishment of death when they are sentenced.
The family of the victim, including the public, flooded the streets last year to demand the death penalty for the rapists. “These monsters should be hanged,” her mother, Asha Devi. The victim’s father, Badri Nath Singh, agreed: “If they are not hanged, it will be a shame for everyone”.
