A man on trial for the gang rape and fatal beating of a woman on a New Delhi bus committed suicide in an Indian jail today, according to police, but his lawyer and family claim he was killed.
Ram Singh was among the five men and a juvenile awaiting trial for the brutal attack on the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist in the Indian capital.
The assault triggered nationwide protests and an intense debate about rampant crime against women in India.
The CNN-IBN news channel said Singh hanged himself in his cell with his own clothes.
Murder suspect: Ram Singh, pictured on an Indian TV show, has been found dead in his prison cell
Suicide: The alleged murderer is believed to have killed himself with his own clothes
India’s deputy home minister, RPN Singh, said an inquiry had been ordered into the suicide, according to the Press Trust of India.
Ram Singh’s family and lawyer alleged foul play over his death.
His lawyer VK Anand said: ‘There were no circumstances which could have led to Ram Singh committing suicide. There was no mental stress. He was very happy.’
Lawyers for the defendants had previously accused police of beating confessions out of the men.
Ram Singh’s father, Mangelal Singh, said his son had been raped in prison by other inmates and had been repeatedly threatened by inmates and guards.
Nevertheless, he said he visited his son four days ago and he appeared fine and gave no hint of the despair that could drive him to take his own life.
Ram Singh, 34, also had a badly injured hand and would have been unable to orchestrate a suicide, his father said, speaking from outside his small home in a New Delhi slum.
‘Somebody has killed him,’ he said, insisting he would push for a top-level investigation into the death.
Mangelal Singh said he feared for the safety of another son who is also on trial in the rape case.
The defendants were being housed in separate buildings on the jail grounds and were all under suicide watch, a jail official said.
Indian jails have a reputation for overcrowding, poor management and brutal treatment of inmates.
The brother of the 20-year-old trainee physiotherapist who was brutally attacked said: ‘He knew he was going to die anyway because we had and still have such a strong case against him.’
‘I’m not very thrilled with the news that he killed himself because I wanted him to be hanged… publicly.
‘Him dying on his own terms seems unfair. But, oh well, one is down. Hopefully the rest will wait for their death sentence.’
The trial of the five adult men began in a special fast-track court last month while the juvenile’s trial began last week.
Ram Singh’s brother Mukesh Singh, gym assistant Vinay Sharma, bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Singh and fruit vendor Pawan Kumar are the other men on trial.
Ram Singh was one of five suspects charged with murder and rape. Here two of them can be seen led into an Indian court. If found guilty they could face the death sentence
Public outrage: The case sparked huge protests around the country as demonstrators called for better protection for women
Police allege the six attacked the woman and her male companion on the bus as the couple returned home after watching Life Of Pi on December 16.
The woman was repeatedly raped and tortured with a metal bar. The couple were also severely beaten before being thrown onto a road.
The woman died of internal injuries in a Singapore hospital two weeks later.
Singh was a bus driver, despite an accident in 2009 that fractured his right arm so badly that doctors had to insert a rod to support it.
Accusations: A Delhi police van, believed to be carrying the accused in the gang rape of a 23-year-old woman, enters a district court in New Delhi
Fury: Indian students burn an effigy representing Hindu religious leader Asaram Bapu after he said that young rape victim in Delhi was as equally responsible for her rape as the rapists
Anger: Protestors had given the victim the name Damini after a Bollywood film of the same name where the protagonist fought for justice after a rape ordeal
Outrage: Protestors hold candles in New Delhi as they took to the streets in anger following the 23-year-old students gang-rape and murder
He appeared on a reality television show in a compensation dispute with a bus owner, who in turn accused Singh of ‘drunken, negligent and rash driving’.
In the show, the moustachioed, slightly-built man was seen walking stiffly and holding his right arm at an awkward angle.
Singh’s neighbours in the south Delhi slum where he lived described him as a heavy drinker with a temper.
One young woman said he used to get embroiled in violent rows and a relative recalled a physical altercation with her husband.
Ram Singh had sought help on the show Aap Ki Kacheri or Your Court, to get compensation for injuries he sustained in a bus accident
In the episode, Ram Singh and a bus owner who had refused his demands for compensation stood side-by-side at podiums as Bedi asked each man to make his case
Singh’s death comes as the trial continued, with another hearing scheduled for today. The four surviving defendants were produced in court, but left after a short time because their lawyers were not there as there was an attorney’s strike.
KTS Tulsi, a former top lawyer in the office of the solicitor general of India, said the suicide should have no impact on the trial, which is being held in a closed courtroom under a gag order which prevents news organisations from publishing details of the proceedings.
He said Singh’s death highlighted how important it was for society not to demonise people who have been accused of crimes but not yet been convicted.
‘It is so unfortunate that the media goes on to presume that they are guilty and goes on to condemn them and demonise them to an extent that it makes the life of these people not worth living,’ he said.
In 2011, 68 inmates in India died by suicide and another eight were killed by fellow inmates, according to India’s National Crime Records Bureau.
Tihar Jail is badly overcrowded, with nearly twice as many prisoners as it was designed to hold. Jail authorities have been working to soften its reputation in part by selling TJ’s cookies baked by the inmates to the public.
Read more: Mail Online
d family shuld be jaild too