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New Delhi: In a huge security lapse, Ram Singh, the key accused in the gang-rape of a medical student in a moving bus in Delhi last December, has committed suicide at Tihar Jail, where he was lodged
Tihar Jail officials said Ram Singh hanged himself in Jail Number 3, at around 5 this morning. His body has been taken to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital in the capital.
Ram Singh was the driver of the bus in which six men inflicted a horrific assault on 23-year-old student Amanat (Not her real name) on December 16 last. Besides Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh and three other men are being tried by a fast-track court. The sixth accused is a minor and is being tried separately by the Juvenile Justice Board.
An investigation has been ordered at Tihar to find out how Ram Singh managed to kill himself despite constantly being under heavy security and also under a "suicide watch"; all the five accused at Tihar had been moved to isolated cells after being subjected to taunting and ill-treatment by other inmates of the jail. The accused had also said they had been threatened by other convicts.
Ram Singh had not seemed inordinately quiet or withdrawn in the past few day, officials said.
The men are accused of brutally gang-raping the young woman in the bus and then throwing her out on the road with mortal wounds. She fought a valiant battle for her life in hospital for 13 days, but her injuries were too severe and she died in a Singapore hospital on December 29.
All the accused were arrested within days of the horrific assault and the case was assigned to a fast-track court. It also led the government to draft new and more stringent anti-rape laws.
Ram Singh's lawyer, VK Anand, had petitioned the Supreme Court in January to shift the case out of Delhi, pleading that his client would not receive a fair trial in Delhi. Mr Anand had sought that the trial be moved to anywhere else in the country except Uttar Pradesh, where the girl came from.
The incident sparked outrage in the country and people took to the streets to demand the most stringent punishment for the accused.
Tihar Jail officials said Ram Singh hanged himself in Jail Number 3, at around 5 this morning. His body has been taken to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital in the capital.
Ram Singh was the driver of the bus in which six men inflicted a horrific assault on 23-year-old student Amanat (Not her real name) on December 16 last. Besides Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh and three other men are being tried by a fast-track court. The sixth accused is a minor and is being tried separately by the Juvenile Justice Board.
Ram Singh had not seemed inordinately quiet or withdrawn in the past few day, officials said.
The men are accused of brutally gang-raping the young woman in the bus and then throwing her out on the road with mortal wounds. She fought a valiant battle for her life in hospital for 13 days, but her injuries were too severe and she died in a Singapore hospital on December 29.
All the accused were arrested within days of the horrific assault and the case was assigned to a fast-track court. It also led the government to draft new and more stringent anti-rape laws.
Ram Singh's lawyer, VK Anand, had petitioned the Supreme Court in January to shift the case out of Delhi, pleading that his client would not receive a fair trial in Delhi. Mr Anand had sought that the trial be moved to anywhere else in the country except Uttar Pradesh, where the girl came from.
The incident sparked outrage in the country and people took to the streets to demand the most stringent punishment for the accused.
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