NEW DELHI: A judge Friday sentenced to death the four men convicted in the December gang rape and murder of a young New Delhi woman, ordering them to the gallows for a brutal attack on a moving bus that left the young woman with such severe internal injuries that she died two weeks later.

Handing down the sentence, Judge Yogesh Khanna said that “courts cannot turn a blind eye” to such crimes, saying the attack “shocked the collective conscience” of India.

One of the four, 20-year-old Vinay Sharma, broke down as the sentence was read, his wail filling the tiny courtroom. Sharma was an assistant at a gym and the only one of the attackers to graduate from high school.

The sentence must be confirmed by India’s High Court. The men can appeal their case to the Supreme Court, and ask the president for clemency.

The victim’s family, along with numerous politicians and government officials, had long called for the men to be executed.

“I am very happy our girl has got justice,” said the victim’s father, who cannot be named under Indian laws guarding his daughter’s identity as a rape victim. The case has been closely followed across India, seen as a reflection on rampant mistreatment of women and the government’s inability to deal with crime.

NEW DELHI: The condition of a 5-year-old girl who was raped, tortured and then left alone in a locked room for two days has improved, a doctor said, as protests continued in India’s capital over the authorities’ handling of the case.

The girl was in critical condition when she was transferred Thursday from a local hospital to the largest government-run hospital in the country. But D.K. Sharma, medical superintendent of the state-run hospital in New Delhi where the girl was being treated, said Sunday that she was responding well to treatment and that her condition had stabilized.

Police say the girl went missing April 15 and was found two days later by neighbors who heard her crying in a locked room in the same New Delhi building where she lives with her family. The girl was alone when she was found, having been left for dead by the man following the brutal attack, police say.

A 24-year-old man was arrested Saturday in the eastern state of Bihar, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from New Delhi. After being flown to New Delhi, he was in custody Sunday and was being questioned, police said.

The attack came four months after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus sparked outrage across India about the treatment of women in the country.

For the second consecutive day, hundreds of people protested Sunday outside police headquarters in the capital, angry over allegations that police had ignored complaints by the girl’s parents that she was missing.

About 100 supporters of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party protested outside the home of the chief of the ruling Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, demanding that the government ensure the safety and security of women and girls in the city.

The protesters also demanded that the Delhi police chief be removed from office and that police officials accused of failing to act on the parents’ complaint be dismissed.

“Police and other officials that fail to do their jobs and instead engage in abusive behavior should know that they will be punished,” Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of New York-basedHuman Rights Watch, said.

Police said they detained more than 50 protesters when they tried to break down barricades on the road leading to Gandhi’s house. The protesters were released after a few hours.

Police also placed restrictions on the gathering of more than four people on the main avenue in the heart of New Delhi after university students said they planned to hold a demonstration there. Despite the police order, about 100 students gathered at New Delhi’s iconic India Gate monument and held a peaceful protest late Sunday.

Sexual crimes against women and children are reported every day in Indian newspapers, and women often complain about their sense of insecurity when they leave their homes.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for changes in attitudes toward women in India, where there has been a fierce debate since December’s fatal New Delhi gang rape about the routine mistreatment of females.

“The gruesome assault on the little girl a few days back reminds us once again of the need to work collectively to root out this sort of depravity from our society,” Singh said Sunday at a meeting with civil servants.

A day earlier, Singh had urged Indian society “to look within and work to root out the evil of rape and other such crimes from our midst.”

NEW DELHI (AP) — A 5-year-old girl was in serious condition Saturday after being raped and tortured by a man who held her in a locked room in India’s capital for two days, officials said.

The incident — which came four months after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus caused outrage across India about the treatment of women in the country — sparked protests against the authorities’ handling of the case.

The girl went missing Monday and was found Wednesday by neighbors who heard her crying in a room in the same New Delhi building where she lives with her parents, said Delhi police officialDeepak Mishra. The girl was found alone locked in a room and left for dead, he said.

A 24-year-old man who lived in the room where the girl was found was arrested Saturday in Muzaffarpur town in Bihar state, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) east of New Delhi, Mishra said. The man was flown to New Delhi, where a magistrate ordered that he be held in police custody.

The girl suffered severe internal injuries, as well as cuts and bite marks on her face and torso, said D.K. Sharma, the medical superintendent of the government-run hospital in New Delhi where she was being treated. Sharma described the girl’s condition as “serious” and said doctors were trying to stabilize her condition.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people in New Delhi protested Saturday near the home minister’s residence and outside police headquarters demanding government action against the police for allegedly failing to immediately investigate after the girl was reported missing.

Rights activists and officials said the girl’s parents went to police Monday to report their daughter was missing, but that police refused to register a case. The parents are poor construction workers who had migrated to the city some years ago in search of work.

“The police did nothing. They did not register a complaint, the first step before they can begin investigations,” said Ranjana Kumari, a women’s rights activist and social scientist. “This heinous crime could have been prevented if police had begun investigations promptly.”

Police had no immediate comment on the accusations, but Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said Saturday that an inquiry had been ordered into the handling of the case.

The growing outrage against alleged police high-handedness in India led even the country’s normally reticent leader to react.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the police behavior “completely unacceptable.” He conveyed to Delhi authorities “the need for the strictest possible action to be taken against the erring officials,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement late Friday.

The fatal beating and gang rape of a young woman aboard a moving New Delhi bus in December sparked outrage and spurred the government to pass tough laws for crimes against women, including the death penalty for repeat offenders or for rape attacks that lead to the victim’s death.

No arrests have been made so far but police were questioning the men in connection with the rape and assault on the woman and her husband in Datia district of the state, said senior police officer D.K. Arya.

He said the couple told police the woman had been raped by seven or eight men, but that it was dark and they could not be sure of the exact number. As a first step, police have registered a case of rape against seven unidentified men and were searching nearby villages, he said.

The attack comes three months after the fatal gang-rape of a woman aboard a New Delhi bus outraged Indians and spurred the government to pass laws to protect women.

The couple were on a three-month vacation in India. They had visited the temple town of Orchha and were planning to cycle to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal, the monument to love, nearly 210 kilometers (130 miles) away.

They set out from Orchha on Friday and had pitched their tent in a forest near Jatia village when they were attacked by a group of men armed with wooden sticks.

The men beat up the husband, tied him to a tree and then raped the woman, police said.

The Swiss ambassador in India, Linus von Castelmur, has spoken to the couple and has demanded a swift probe of the incident.

Castelmur said he was “most distressed” by the incident and had assured the couple of all help and support.

“Their health and treatment is the priority of the moment,” the embassy said in a statement.

The embassy said it was in touch with local authorities in Madhya Pradesh and has urged a “swift investigation and for justice to be done.”

NEW DELHI: Police said a man on trial for the gang rape and fatal beating of a woman aboard a New Delhi bus committed suicide in an Indian jail Monday, but his lawyer and family allege he was killed.

Ram Singh, who was accused of driving the bus on which the 23-year-old student was raped by a group of six men in December, was under suicide watch at New Delhi’s Tihar Jail when he hanged himself with his own clothes at about 5:30 a.m., police officials said. His death is raising further questions about a criminal justice system already being criticized for failing to protect the nation’s women.

Singh, 33, had been among five defendants facing the death penalty if convicted of the attack, which horrified Indians and set off national protests. A sixth accused is being tried and jailed separately because he is a juvenile.

India’s deputy home minister, R.P.N. Singh, said an inquiry had been ordered into the suicide, according to the Press Trust of India.

“The inquiry is being conducted and it would be premature to make any statement about the details of the incident,” said Vimla Mehra, the director general of the jail.

Ram Singh’s family and lawyer alleged foul play in his death.

“There were no circumstances which could have led to Ram Singh committing suicide. There was no mental stress. He was very happy,” his lawyer V.K. Anand said. Lawyers for the defendants had previously accused police of beating confessions out of the men.

Indian jails have a reputation for overcrowding, poor management and brutal treatment of inmates.

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 the man appeared fine and gave no hint of any despair that could drive him to take his own life.

Ram Singh also had a badly injured hand and would have been unable to hang himself, 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 on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The rape victim and a male friend were attacked after boarding the bus Dec. 16 as they tried to return home after watching a movie, police say. The six men, the only occupants of the private bus, beat the man with a metal bar, raped the woman and used the bar to inflict massive internal injuries to her, police say. The victims were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman died from her injuries two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.

The brutal attack set off nationwide protests about India’s treatment of women and spurred the government to hurry through a new package of laws to protect them.

Singh’s death comes as the trial was deep underway, with another hearing scheduled for Monday. The four surviving defendants were produced in court, but left after a short time because of an attorney’s strike.

Vivek Sharma, a lawyer representing another defendant, said he planned to ask the court to provide greater protection for his client.

NEW DELHI: In the court of public opinion, the men being tried in the gang rape of an Indian university student should be hanged in a public square. That demand for swift justice might make it impossible for them to get a fair trial in a court of law.

Already, there are plenty of portents. Amid the heightened emotions that have surrounded this case a local bar association has stopped its members from representing the men citing the heinous nature of the crime. The three grandstanding lawyers who have rushed in to represent the accused spent weeks taking potshots at each other instead of coordinating a defense.

Two lawyers fought for days over which one was representing one of the defendants. And the case is being heard by a brand new fast track court, set up in the wake of the rape to deal with sexual assaults in the capital, that is under pressure to reach a verdict within weeks. Finally, whatever is said or submitted in court has to stay in the room — a gag order by the judge prevents the media from reporting anything about the case. “However wicked and depraved society may perceive a person to be, he deserves a fair trial. He deserves a good defense,” said Markandey Katju, a retired judge of India’s Supreme Court. “That some of those charged are the real culprits and some are innocent … that is a very real possibility,” he said, adding that in India the police “spreads its net wide.”

As details of the attack have emerged Katju said he feared the trial may be overrun by emotion rather than the calm voice of reason. “You can’t decide cases on sentiment. That’s lynch law.” The specifics of the gang rape are horrifying. According to the police report, the attack lasted at least 45 minutes. There were six attackers, one of whom claims to be a juvenile and is being tried separately. Each of the men raped the 23-year-old woman, with at least two taking turns driving the bus. They penetrated her with two metal rods, causing such severe internal injuries that doctors later found parts of her intestines floating freely inside her abdomen.

The battered woman and her badly beaten male friend were then thrown out of the moving bus and lay naked and bleeding on the side of a busy road on a cold December night. The attack was so brutal that the woman died two weeks later in a Singapore hospital. Within two days of the attack the police arrested the six accused. According to the police all six confessed their crimes. The police report said that DNA evidence from the men tied all of them in the rape and murder. According to police documents blood and saliva swabs from the accused matched the DNA found on the victim’s injuries. The victim’s blood was also found on the clothes, underwear and slippers of the accused. The attack in the heart of New Delhi brought protesters into the streets demanding the government protect women and ensure those attacked get justice. In response, the city government set up five fast track courts to swiftly handle those cases, keeping them out of India’s overburdened regular court system, where trials can drag on for years if not decades. As the police framed charges against the men and prepared for trial the bar association of Saket, the district where the case is being heard, declared that their members would not represent the men. They were following a precedent set by lawyers’ groups across India over the last few years, which have banned their members from representing those accused of terrorism and other heinous crimes.

“This is completely unconstitutional and unethical,” said Katju. “Right minded lawyers should defy and ignore such rulings.” Outside the courtroom the cries for a quick trial and execution of the five men have persisted. “They should be handed over to the public and hanged,” said Prakash, a 51-year-old gardener who had come to court on a personal matter but waited to get a glimpse of the accused being whisked into court. She uses only one name. The three men who rushed forth to represent the accused were not members of the local bar and have spent more time fighting each other than putting up a defense. One insisted he would ask the Supreme Court to move the trial out of Delhi because emotions were too high to hold a fair trial here. But when a second lawyer made a similar appeal, the first changed his mind and vehemently opposed it. One lawyer, M.L. Sharma, has accused police of planting the other two defense lawyers to ensure a guilty verdict. “I’m the only hurdle standing in their way,” Sharma said earlier this week. Even as he made his allegations, fellow defense counsel V.K. Anand stepped up to say that Sharma’s client had decided to fire his lawyer — and hire him. The dispute over who would represent the defendant was only resolved Thursday — the day the trial started. Sharma dropped out of the trial, saying he feared his client would be tortured to get him to change his lawyer. Anand replaced him. Sharma has accused police of beating all five men to extract their confessions, then later amended that to say only his client was beaten. He also made unsubstantiated accusations that the victim’s male friend was somehow responsible for the deadly assault, only to backtrack later.

Another lawyer, A.P. Singh, said the only reason he agreed to represent two of the accused was because their families had begged his mother for help. “My mother has a kind heart and an order from her is like an order from God,” he said, posing dramatically for the cameras. Anand hasn’t spoken about his strategy, but both Sharma and Singh have claimed at least once that their clients were not even on the bus during the attack. In the past, courts across the country have criticized the police for coercing confessions and even planting evidence to get convictions. “We set so little store by how the police functions in this country. There’s no reason to accept the police’s version of events in this case without thorough legal scrutiny,” said Jawahar Raja, a lawyer and activist. The defense is made even more complicated by the fact the case is being tried in a fast track court.

As a result the police has put together its case at rapid speed. The trial has started even as defense lawyers are falling into place. “Justice takes some time. It’s all very easy to talk about fast track courts,” said Katju, adding that cases should be tried quickly and efficiently but without a looming deadline. “A judge has to read all the documents, hear the lawyers, apply his mind. It’s not a magic lamp that with a swish you can dispose of a case.”

The brutal rape of the 23-year-old student last month set off protests in New Delhi and sparked a national debate about the treatment of women across the country and the inability of law enforcement to protect them.
In an effort to address some of that criticism, the government set up five fast-track courts in the capital in recent weeks to deal swiftly with crimes against women. Authorities were eager to move the case into one of those courts, which are designed to avoid the delays, incompetence and corruption that plague much of India’s legal system.
Magistrate Namrita Aggarwal dealt with several procedural issues during a session Thursday morning, and then reconvened the court in the afternoon for a second session at which she ordered the transfer to a fast-track court. The first hearing is to be held there on Monday.
A sixth suspect in the attack claims to be a juvenile and his case is being handled separately.
Lawyers for the five have said police mistreated their clients, including beating them to force them to confess to the Dec. 16 crime.
V.K. Anand, a lawyer for one of the defendants, said Thursday that he would petition the Supreme Court to have the rape trial moved out of New Delhi because he doesn’t believe his client could get a fair hearing in the capital.
Police say the victim and a male friend were heading home from an evening movie when they boarded a bus, where they were attacked by the six assailants. The attackers beat the man and took turns raping the woman and penetrated her repeatedly with a metal bar, causing massive internal injuries, police said. During the attack, the bus drove through a series of police checkpoints without incident, police said.
The victims were eventually dumped on the roadside, and the woman died two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.
The attack focused attention on the little-discussed issue of sexual violence in a country where women are still often regarded as second-class citizens. Victims are often blamed for sexual attacks — by their families or authorities — and the shame of rape keeps many women from reporting such attacks.
Since the gang rape, though, sexual violence has become front-page news nearly every day across the country, with demands that the government do more to protect women and prosecute those that attack them. The government has established several committees to look into how such a horrific attack could occur and recommend changes in the law.