2012 Delhi gang rape case

2012 Delhi gang rape

Protesters at India Gate in Delhi
Time	1:54 am IST (UTC+05:30)
Date	16 December 2012
Location	Delhi India
Outcome	Ram Singh (died in trial period); other adult convicts sentenced to death by hanging; juvenile defendant released on 20 December 2015, two days later The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill 2015 was passed by the Rajya Sabha
Deaths	1 (Jyoti Singh) on 29 December 2012
Non-fatal injuries	1 (male victim)
Convicted	Ram Singh Mukesh Singh Vinay Sharma Pawan Gupta 1 juvenile defendant Akshay Thakur
Verdict	Guilty
Convictions	Rape, murder, kidnapping, robbery, assault

The 2012 Delhi gang rape case involved a rape and fatal assault that occurred on 16 December 2012 in Munirka, a neighbourhood in South Delhi. The incident took place when a 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern, Jyoti Singh, was beaten, gang raped, and tortured in a private bus in which she was traveling with her friend, Awindra Pratap Pandey. There were six others in the bus, including the driver, all of whom raped the woman and beat her friend. Eleven days after the assault, she was transferred to a hospital in Singapore for emergency treatment, but died from her injuries two days later. The incident generated widespread national and international coverage and was widely condemned, both in India and abroad. Subsequently, public protests against the state and central governments for failing to provide adequate security for women took place in New Delhi, where thousands of protesters clashed with security forces. Similar protests took place in major cities throughout the country. Since there is a law in India that does not allow the press to publicise a rape victim's name, the victim has become widely known as Nirbhaya, meaning "fearless", and her life and death have come to symbolise women's struggle to end rape and the long-held practice of blaming the victim rather than the perpetrator.

All the accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. One of the accused, Ram Singh, died in police custody from possible suicide on 11 March 2013 in the Tihar Jail. According to some published reports, the police say Ram Singh hanged himself, but defense lawyers and his family suspect he was murdered. The rest of the accused went on trial in a fast-track court; the prosecution finished presenting its evidence on 8 July 2013. The juvenile was convicted of rape and murder and given the maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment in a reform facility. On 10 September 2013, the four remaining adult defendants were found guilty of rape and murder and three days later were sentenced to death by hanging. On 13 March 2014, Delhi High Court in the death reference case and hearing appeals against the conviction by the lower Court, upheld the guilty verdict and the death sentences.