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Manan Vatsyayana / AFP - Getty Images
Media representatives surround an ambulance as it leaves the main entrance of Tihar Jail in New Delhi on Monday.
NEW DELHI -- The alleged ringleader in the gang-rape and death of a young Indian woman in December hanged himself in jail on Monday, officials said, a dramatic twist in a case that has provoked outrage across India.
Ram Singh's lawyer said his client had been composed and calm when he spoke to him on Friday and that there were other inmates in his cell in New Delhi's Tihar jail, raising questions about whether it was a suicide and how it could have gone unnoticed by staff in India's highest security prison.
Officials at a prison in India say a man accused in the gang rape of a woman killed himself in his jail cell. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
The lawyer and a prison official said Singh had not been on suicide watch.
Police have described Singh as the ringleader of five men and a juvenile on trial for the December 16 attack on the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist on a bus in the Indian capital. Singh was driving the bus.
All six accused have pleaded not guilty to rape and murder.
The assault triggered nationwide protests, a toughening of rape laws and an intense debate about rampant crime against women in India.
Tihar prison authorities ordered a magisterial inquiry after Singh was found hanging in his cell at around 5 a.m. (7 p.m. ET Sunday), prison spokesman Sunil Gupta said.
Singh's lawyer, V.K. Anand, told Reuters that his client did not appear to be distressed when he spoke to him on Friday.
"I believe he was satisfied with the way the trial was proceeding because we had a very strong case against the prosecution's claims," he said.
"This is not suicide, this is something else. I know he had a few complaints of jail authorities torturing him, but nothing that would make him take his own life. We can't rule out foul play. Nothing is adding up," he said.
Manish Swarup / AP
The mother of Ram Singh cries as she speaks to journalists inside the family's home in New Delhi on Monday.
Anand has previously always denied that his client was being maltreated in prison. He did not elaborate on the "torture".
Singh had been kept in a cell with other inmates, he said.
A former director of the jail, Kiran Bedi, said Singh should have been kept isolated from the main prison population.
The trial of the five adult men started 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.
Under Indian law, the juvenile cannot be named.
The attack generated headlines around the world, but the case has since largely disappeared from public view, in large part because authorities have barred reporting on the trial, which was due to resume in a fast-track court on Monday.
Police allege the six attacked the woman and a male companion on the bus as the couple returned home after watching a movie 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.
The police report used to charge the accused draws a picture of Ram Singh as the ringleader. On the night of December 16, the accused gathered at his house for dinner, where he came up with the plan of taking the bus out to look for a victim to rape, the report said.
The police say they found him sitting in the blood-stained school bus, wearing a bloodied T-shirt, the morning after the crime. A DNA test revealed that the blood belonged to the rape victim, the report said.
Related:
5 accused men plead not guilty in India gang rape
India gang-rape victim's father: Hang the 'monsters' responsible
India gang-rape victim dies in hospital; case focuses attention on sexual violence
This story was originally published on Sun Mar 10, 2013 11:22 PM EDT
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Leave a Comment:
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Hopefully it took sometime for his neck to break and he enjoyed a few hours of pain before he died.
did us all a favor......................
Who says there's never anything good that gets reported in the news???
This is good news!!! ☺
hey chefaz! whats up? you got that right good news indeed.
good point, heinous...................
GM kilroy!!!
Always nice to see things working well!!! ☺
One down four to go
My sentiments exactly Grendels.
Self imposed or assisted? Who cares...justice done! Now it's time for the other four to be "found" the same way!
Sad, for the girl and her family. This should have never happened. The rape that is. Not the hanging of the "ringleader". He got what he deserved.
of course take the easy way out you stupid Moron. he should of been raped and best like he did to this young lady or girl.
sorry that was to say beat, not best
hmm, another story of a rapist offing himself, hopefully this is the beginning of a trend.
They don't know for sure whether he was tortured?
Well I hope he WAS! Then he might know just what that poor girl and her friend went through!
Typical act of a coward....could dish it out but can't be responsible for his own actions.............
Good riddance...one less monster walking this earth posing as a mere man.
Other prisoners and guards have sisters too. If he was so calm and sure about having the rial go to his favor, there may have been some who said, "We're going to keep you off the streets," and followed words with action.
One less Indian scumbag to worry about...too bad he chose to die a coward instead of manning up and getting the guillotine
I am glad that this person felt sick enough to take matters into his own hands. If there's an afterlife I hope he must face the woman he probably helped to kill. That will be enough judgement I suppose.
Considering the fact that hanging is the way executions are done in India, he was just getting a couple years head start.
This is not good news. This is a miscarriage of justice. Being hung by a lynch mob is not justice. Sure, he looked guilty. I am pretty sure he was guilty. We are all pretty sure he was guilty. But it is not possible to convict someone on "pretty sure." That is what courts are for - to change pretty sure to beyond a shadow of a doubt.
He should have been tried and THEN hung, not before.
Karma finally kicked his ass.
I wish the prison guards killed him and I wish the other three die too. The poor girl deserves justice and sometimes - especially given India's almost non-existent justice system - I like this kind justice much better.
This guy was in a cell with other prisoners and they didn't notice him in the corner hanging himself? It would have taken several minutes for him to choke to death. Sounds kinda fishy to me. Either way good riddance to the POC.
"The mother of Ram Singh cries as she speaks to journalists inside the family's home in New Delhi on Monday"
One must, of course, feel deeply saddened for the victim and her parents, but for the perp's mother as well. Not easy losing a child, regardless of the crime.
I also hope they do "due diligence" and investigate his death.
Byron Raum -- what story are you reading? He hung HIMSELF!
First the rape, then suicide.
Definitely a coward.
If this was in the US he would be labeled guilty. This was the worm that was behind the rape. I really do not care that he is dead.
bibol - my kids were born here and I was not. And I can say without a doubt that howsoever faulty - american justice system is far too better. May not be perfect .... but then every new generation should improve it.
Oh well....wonder if he gave his penis one last job and hanged himself with it????
probably wasnt long enough.
It is now!
to bad more prisoners do not do this in USA, save us money
i have always thought when entering the prison system they should get one cyanide pill per inmate, just in case they want 'early release'
I am satisfied that the Karmic consequence, for once in this History, has occurred, by the commiter unto himself, in a more-or-less timely manner. Each of these scum had the chance to walk away from the Singularity of this event. And they chose NOT to.
Too bad he chose not do away with himself before they committed the rape. That would have been Infinitely Optimal.
Guys, leave women alone if they do not want your attention. Just leave women alone, guys. Guys, leave the Target of your aggression alone if they do not want your attention. Just leave your target alone, guys. Behave yourself. Behave yourself, or else you will be made to behave.
You could have at least posted a pic!
I can only hope these people arrested are truly guilty and not scapegoats so the police can look like they are actually doing something when for the majority of the time they never cared about rape cases until now.
Well that would be quite an interesting story to try and find out how this guy got onto that bus and into a t-shirt covered in the victim's blood and NOT be guilty. They still don't care about rape cases, they just have to pretend now because they know the world is watching. Or trying to watch, at least.
They SAID they found him in a bus in a blood-stained t-shirt. I really don't care - I just don't necessarily believe anything anyone tells me anymore. As long as I don't have to read about this piece of filth after today, I'm happy.
btw, did you see the list of his minions? Bus cleaner, gym assistant, fruit vendor? This guy surrounds himself with a high functioning group of folks, don't he? Bye, rapist. Don't want to see you. Don't want to be you.
It wasn't his fault, she forgot to piss and vomit on them so they would stop attacking her.
Is that supposed to be funny?
No, that is the recommended action to take in THIS country to stop a rape instead of deadly force.
Pretty sad if you ask me.
Good. Now if the rest would just die.
If only rapist/murderers in the US would follow his example more often. It's an onerous burden for the taxpayer to bear to feed, cloth, shelter, and provide any amount of healthcare for people who have raped and murdered other taxpayers.
I honestly don't know why prisons/jails try to stop filth from taking their own lives. Rather then that they should provide these vermin with rope and/or razor blades every night when they turn the lights out.
these animals need to SUFFER real bad for what they did. I hope they rot in hell.
India is a cesspool! May they and their paki brothers nuke each other, they must be eradicated!!!
What do you know about India, I mean really. Besides US sending manufacturing jobs to them, and they in turn capitalizing, what do you hate about them? By in large, Indians are smart, productive, entrepreneurial, family-minded, and kind people. They also are an ally should things go awry with unstable Pakistan.
...and don't forget. The kids from India move to the United States all the time and take the American kids to bitch school every year in the national spelling bee contest. They've won like 10 straight years. They make people like youwish look silly.
I'm very sorry that you feel this way, youwish. India is a wonderful country. There are bad people every where. What do you think goes through the minds of the people of India (and other countries) when they hear about our news??? For one example, 500+ dead by violence in Chicago alone in 2012.
On the other hand, Pakistan unfortunately thrives on the blood of innocents...
Hey youwish - I've been to India, and I can tell you these rapists are pathetic excuses for humans and not indicative of the people living in India.
India is a beautiful, multi-religious, multi-cultural, democracy.
It is a bulwark against both Islamic radicalism and communism.
There is crime in every nation on Earth.
99% of Indians are law-abiding, decent, family-oriented folk.
Just one of the moron curry smelling Indian who choose to close their eyes to everything and tries to take side of this BS country he belongs too
I have found in life that racists are usually low-IQ....... and low-achieving .... so I think you should take
your racism and shove it.
I wish he had been hanged in public, but still.
And, youwish #, get over the racist crap. No one country or race is innocent of heinous behavior. Check out the rape trial in Ohio if you need evidence.
Hmmm...killed himself? Sure.....
Paul R.-677134
I was thinking along similar lines.
Me too. And guess what. I could give a frog's fat ass, justice is now served.
It's an obvious possibility...but really...who cares???
I could give a $hit whether he did kill himself. One down.
What? He raped himself?
Good, im glad he saw the error of his ways.
I just wish he would have gotten the order backwards, hang himself first, then try and rape and kill an innocent woman.
This story would have taken a scary turn if he actually accomplished the rape after killing himself.
well I guess he was guilty !!!
Well, killed himself or was beaten to it by fellow prisoners or guards. Either way, I'll save my sympathies for those more worthy.
Why assume other murderers and rapist are dispensing justice in prisons.
Well, considering that Indian women historically have been raped, bride-burned, beaten, degraded, and generally treated as the lowest grade of chattel, all with zero consequences for the perps, I suppose we can take it as a sign of progress that this "gentleman" realized that the times are a'changin' sufficiently that he realized he'd have had to pay the piper, and hence chose his own way out. Hope all this amounts to more than window dressing.
The possibility that this guy killed himself is exactly zero.
In the U.S. we wouldn't of allowed him to kill himself. Instead he would of been on a suicide watch in a special cell where he couldn't get at his TV power cord and use it as a noose. Its a shame we don't provide all prison cells we an eye-hook in the ceiling
Yes, Thomas-90210,
Solitary confinement cells equipped with: Eye-hooks securely mounted onto the ceiling, a choice of several dangling short ropes with pre-wound nooses, AC sockets equipped with "suicide" cords (google), a footstool, Several cyanide gel-capsules enclosed within a non-descript Rx vial. Yes. In all solitary confinement prison cells. For many prisoners, their own wretched guilty conscience will decide how to MacGyver their own consequence pre-trial.
DancingSpiderman, shame on you. Not all accused are guilty. People have even been thrown in solitary for minor alleged crimes. If justice is to be served, no accused must be forced into solitary before the trial judgment has been made. Unfortunately, the one dimensionality of your thought will prevent you from seeing it from all angles.
AB,
If the hypothetical confined person deems themselves to be not guilty for which are are incarcerated, or wishes to continue living, then they do not have to choose to die.
YOU are the 1-dimensional "thinker" in this two-person real system. I HAVE seen all angles on this article; and that is the reason I posted the above comment with the selected wording used. A bit more pre-posting thought on your part will solve your issue henceforth.
I wish justice was this swift in the US.
Excellent. Now issue shoe laces to the other perps and turn a blind eye.
That sucks. I read somewhere where they stuck a metal bar into her so much that some of her intestines were hanging out of her. He should have been skinned imo. P*ssy.
When they did surgery to try to repair her....her intestines were in pieces... The remaining rapists/killers should get the same treatment....with metal re-bar being inserted anally before they are left to bleed to death internally... Sound good?
Rapists here should take note with self induced instant justice being served saving tax dollars and prison space should they be convicted. The penalty here for rape should the same as the crime except with the rear ejection port being molested with a baseball bat until everything falls out.
I won't be making any points with amnesty international over this thought..... When are we going to get to the point where we finally say....enough!? There are hundreds of thousands of violent criminals spending all of their worthless lives on our nickel in prisons.... When will we finally put down the lot of them like the mad dogs they are? Ease the tax burden... ensure that the streets will be a little safer...
@Lisa, I agree. I wish they could throw them in with pedophiles and do away with them all. The more they suffer the better. Instead, they languish in prison, get an education, sex, drugs, watch TV and eat meals on someone else's dime.
Meanwhile people like our Veterans are killing themselves or are homeless on the street? What's wrong with this picture!!!
He killed himself so that he didn't get what was coming to him. Rapists are cowards. This was a cowardly, vile and pathetic human until the end of his miserable life.
Too bad that he killed himself. I wanted him to suffer. He deprived the people from seeing him hang for what he did. Shows the amount of control a rapists needs.
Too bad I wasn't his cellie. I would of taken the rod out of his arm and impaled him with it. Just like he did to that poor woman. I hope that the other guys meet terrible demises and the victims families get some form of comfort from it. I don't have beef with Indian people. Just hate women abusers, they aren't real men.
I spit on his corpse.
What a worthless piece of trash. Hope he suffered.