Indian university students shout slogans during protest march in New Delhi The gang of rapists who savagely assaulted a woman on a bus in New Delhi tried to run her over after the fatal attack, reports said Wednesday, citing a police account of the incident .Her boyfriend, who was beaten up and thrown off the bus after the woman had been repeatedly raped, managed to pull her to safety just in time. Police are set to allege in a 1,000-page charge sheet to be presented in court on Thursday.
The 23-year-old female medical student, whose ordeal last month has brought simmering anger about widespread sex crime in India to the boil, bit three of her attackers as she attempted to fight them off, local newspapers and TV reports said.
These injuries on the suspects, as well as forensic evidence such as blood, semen and hair samples and the testimony of her injured boyfriend, are expected to form the main evidence against the accused, reports and police sources said.
Five men have been arrested and are expected on Thursday to formally face murder and rape charges in a fast-track court set up to try them.
A sixth suspect is believed to be 17 years old, meaning he would be tried in a juvenile court, and police are conducting bone tests to determine his age.
Lawyers at the Saket district court in south Delhi, where hearings are set to begin, told AFP Wednesday that they would not defend the men, meaning that the government would have to appoint advocates for them.
India's Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said Tuesday that the suspects risked the death penalty if found guilty, adding that the case against them appeared very strong.
The woman died at the weekend after a 13-day struggle to survive injuries so grievous that her intestines had to be removed. She also underwent three major surgeries and suffered a cardiac arrest before being flown to Singapore.
The brutality and horrific nature of the attack has led to protests in the capital and elsewhere, and has prompted calls for the death penalty for the rapists.
Several hundred people took part in a solidarity march for women on Wednesday organised by the Delhi government which ended at Rajghat, the memorial for slain independence hero Mahatma Gandhi.
Prayers were held for the victim, whose ashes were scattered in the river Ganges on Tuesday by her distraught family.
The central government, which has faced a wave of public anger over the attack, has set up a special committee to look into women's safety and the police, while a separate panel will recommend changes to the law.
Junior Education Minister Shashi Tharoor sparked a controversy Wednesday when he suggested that a proposed new anti-rape law to toughen sentences against sex offenders be named after the dead student.
While much of her identity is known, her name has not been disclosed.
"Unless her parents object, she should be honoured and the revised anti-rape law named after her," Tharoor wrote on Twitter.
Victims of sex crimes are granted anonymity to avoid them or their families facing stigma from the crime.
Source: AFP