Protesters hold a candle-light vigil in Delhi in protest against the gruesome gang-rape of a young physiotherapy student
As she lay in a maze of tubes on a hospital bed, her insides hollowed out with unspeakable brutality, the 23-year-old medical student told a magistrate that she wanted the six men who had raped and violated her to be brought to justice. "They must be punished," she wrote.
Today, a fast-track court in Delhi found four men guilty of raping and murdering her. They will be sentenced tomorrow.
In the 13 days that she lived after she was gang-raped by six men in a moving bus on December 16, 2012, the young woman became a symbol of hope and courage for an entire country that prayed hard for her life.
"I want to live," she told her brother and mother when they first met her in hospital. She couldn't speak, but wrote notes and used gestures, as she weaved in and out of consciousness. Twice, she gave statements to a magistrate.
Doctors said she talked about her future plans. She asked her brother if her missing ATM card and mobile phone SIM had been blocked.
She also repeatedly asked how the male friend who had accompanied her that Sunday evening for a movie at a swish mall in south Delhi was. On the bus, the 28-year-old engineer was beaten unconscious by the six attackers when he tried to defend the young woman.
He visited her in hospital five days after they were attacked. He reportedly wore a jacket she had presented him. She mimed a hug. That was the last time they met.
The engineer's testimony was key in establishing the guilt of the four surviving adult men who were convicted in a fast track court today. A juvenile accused was found guilty of rape and murder last month.
The man considered the gangleader of the group that allegedly inflicted the savage attack, Ram Kumar, committed suicide in jail in March.
On December 30, 2012, the young student died in a Singapore hospital. Her parents say with her died their hope of the better life that she had set out to win for them.