India gang-rape: Ram Singh's lawyer suggests 'foul play' after suspect's 'suicide'
The lawyer representing a man on trial for the gang rape and fatal beating of a woman aboard a bus in New Delhi said on Monday that his apparent suicide must have involved "foul play"
Officials said Ram Singh, one of six on trial in the high-profile rape
case hanged himself by his clothes in Delhi’s Tihat Jail around 5.15am
local time.
Singh’s body has been sent for an autopsy and the jail authorities have ordered an inquiry into the incident.
"There has to be some foul play here," said VK Anand, Singh's lawyer, outside the mortuary at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, where Singh's body is undergoing an autopsy.
"There were no circumstances which could have led to Ram Singh committing suicide."
According to police officials, Singh was under suicide watch at New Delhi's Tihar Jail when he hanged himself with his own clothes, police officials said.
"He was meeting his family members everyday. The court had given him special permission to meet them. The trial was going very well. I cannot understand what happened that would lead him to commit suicide," Mr Anand said.
Singh, who along with his brother Mukesh was one of five men arrested over the attack, was the driver of the bus in which the 23-year-old was raped on the night of December 16 last year.
The sixth suspect, who is 17, is being held in Delhi’s juvenile home. He is also being tried separately.
The 23-year old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered massive intestinal injuries during the assault in which she was violated with an iron bar on a bus she and her male friend innocently clambered aboard on their way home from a seeing a film.
She died 13 days later at a Singapore medical facility where the government, under pressure from tens of thousands of outraged demonstrators in Delhi and across India, had her admitted in a desperate bid to save her life.
The attack sparked demands for change in the manner in which India deals with sex crimes with police often refusing to file rape cases and courts rarely delivering speedy justice in the few that do get filed.
Singh’s body has been sent for an autopsy and the jail authorities have ordered an inquiry into the incident.
"There has to be some foul play here," said VK Anand, Singh's lawyer, outside the mortuary at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, where Singh's body is undergoing an autopsy.
"There were no circumstances which could have led to Ram Singh committing suicide."
According to police officials, Singh was under suicide watch at New Delhi's Tihar Jail when he hanged himself with his own clothes, police officials said.
"He was meeting his family members everyday. The court had given him special permission to meet them. The trial was going very well. I cannot understand what happened that would lead him to commit suicide," Mr Anand said.
Singh, who along with his brother Mukesh was one of five men arrested over the attack, was the driver of the bus in which the 23-year-old was raped on the night of December 16 last year.
The sixth suspect, who is 17, is being held in Delhi’s juvenile home. He is also being tried separately.
The 23-year old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered massive intestinal injuries during the assault in which she was violated with an iron bar on a bus she and her male friend innocently clambered aboard on their way home from a seeing a film.
She died 13 days later at a Singapore medical facility where the government, under pressure from tens of thousands of outraged demonstrators in Delhi and across India, had her admitted in a desperate bid to save her life.
The attack sparked demands for change in the manner in which India deals with sex crimes with police often refusing to file rape cases and courts rarely delivering speedy justice in the few that do get filed.
Contains video from APTN
Courtesy: The Telegraph
