Delhi gang-rape case: four other accused write to Home Minister, demand more security

New Delhi: After Ram Singh, one of the men accused of brutally gang-raping a medical student in Delhi was found hanging in his Tihar Jail cell yesterday, four other men facing trial in the case and lodged at Tihar have written to the Home Minister and Delhi's police chief asking for more security.

The lawyers of the four men have written a letter to Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Delhi's Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar requesting that they either be shifted to another jail or then be provided extra security at Tihar.  

A copy of the letter has also been sent to the Chief Justice of India and the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court.

In court yesterday,the lawyers said, their clients told the judge, "Shoot us, but don't send us back to Tihar Jail."  Their request was turned down, but the judge has asked jail officials to submit a daily report on the security arrangements for the suspects.

Ram Singh, 35, was discovered dead at 5 am in a cell he shared with three other prisoners, none of them linked to the Delhi gang-rape case. They apparently slept through his alleged suicide, which was also not detected by a guard posted to monitor the cell round-the-clock because Mr Singh was on "a suicide watch."

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His family says he was murdered. They have also said they fear for the life of his younger brother, Mukesh, who is also one of the men accused in the case.

The police say that on the night of December 16, the six suspects, led by Mr Singh, headed out on the school bus he used to drive by day.

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They allegedly picked up a 23-year-old physiotherapy trainee and her male friend, assaulted them both with an iron rod, took turns raping the student, then threw the couple onto the road. The woman died in hospital two weeks later. The barbarous attack on her triggered huge protests and a call for urgent, new anti-rape laws, introduced by the government last month.

All six suspects have pleaded not guilty to rape and murder charges. One of them, who is 17, is being tried by a juvenile court.

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