Mad House lIOl #36 - Page 105

New Delhi: In a huge security lapse, Ram Singh, one of the men accused in the gang-rape of a medical student in a moving bus in Delhi last December, has allegedly committed suicide at Tihar Jail, where he was lodged. He reportedly used his own clothes to hang himself. (Read: 10 developments in the case)

Tihar Jail officials said Ram Singh hanged himself in Jail Number 3, at around 5 this morning. His body has been taken to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital in the capital.

Ram Singh was the driver of the bus in which six men inflicted a horrific assault on 23-year-old student Amanat (Not her real name) on December 16 last year. Besides Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh and three other men are being tried by a fast-track court. The sixth accused is a minor and is being tried separately by the Juvenile Justice Board.

An investigation has been ordered at Tihar to find out how Ram Singh managed to kill himself despite being under a "suicide watch" that meant additional security round the clock. All the five accused lodge at Tihar had been moved to isolated cells after being subjected to taunting and ill-treatment by other inmates of the jail. The accused had also said they had been threatened by other convicts. (Read: accused were on suicide watch since January, officials claimed)

Officials said Ram Singh, prone to violent behaviour and mood swings, had not seemed inordinately quiet or in any way different than usual in the past few days. During court hearings in Saket, he would interact with the other accused as he always did, they said.

It is not clear yet whether and how his suicide will impact the trial of the five other suspects.

All five men faced multiple charges, including murder, for gang-raping the young woman in the bus and then throwing her out on the road with mortal wounds. She fought a valiant battle for her life in hospital for 13 days, but her injuries were too severe and she died in a Singapore hospital on December 29.

Thirty three-year-old Ram Singh was the oldest among the men accused in the case, and, police said, was the one who suggested taking the bus out on a joy-ride that Sunday evening when they picked up Amanat and a male friend and inflicted the brutal assault on them. All the accused were arrested within days of the incident.

The incident sparked outrage in the country and people took to the streets to demand the most stringent punishment for the accused. It also led the government to draft new and more stringent anti-rape laws.