India gang-rape: Accused Ram Singh ‘commits suicide’

NEW DELHI — The principal accused in the fatal gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi last December has apparently committed suicide in jail.

Monday, March 11, 2013

NEW DELHI — The principal accused in the fatal gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi last December has apparently committed suicide in jail. 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. Forensic investigators have arrived at the jail to conduct investigations into what the authorities claim was a suicide. However, his family has said he could not have killed himself. "My son has not committed suicide,” said Mange Lal Singh, his father. "I had met him six days back at the court. He had told me that his life is in danger and he also said that he had been sodomised by his fellow inmates,” he told AFP. Mr Singh said that his son would have been incapable of hanging himself as a result of a hand injuries he sustained in a road accident several years ago.