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The case of five men charged with the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi has been moved to a fast-track court for trial.

Lawyers for the defendants say that the case will get under way on Monday.

A sixth suspect, who is thought to be 17, will be tried separately in a youth court if it is confirmed he is a minor.

The case has shocked India and sparked a debate about the treatment of women. If convicted, the men could face the death penalty.

In the wake of the public outcry and nationwide protests, the government promised a fast-track legal process for this and other rape cases.

It announced it was setting up six fast-track courts in Delhi to allow crimes against women to be dealt with swiftly. Legal proceedings in India sometimes involve years of delays.

The five accused have been named as Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur.

The lawyer for Ram Singh, said he would file a petition arguing for the case to be transferred out of Delhi, fearing that the proceedings might be prejudiced because of the intense media interest.

"We are sure we will not get justice in Delhi," VK Ananad said.

Last week another lawyer claimed that the men had been tortured and coerced into confessing they were guilty. Officials refused to comment on the allegations, citing legal restrictions.

The lawyers for two of the suspects have said they will plead not guilty. It is unclear how the three accused will plead. Prosecutors have said they have extensive forensic evidence.

The victim, a physiotherapy student who cannot be named in India for legal reasons, and a male friend were attacked on a bus in south Delhi on 16 December. She died two weeks later in hospital in Singapore.

Campaigners are calling for tougher rape laws and reforms to the police, who - critics say - often fail to file charges against accused attackers.

The government has said that it will bring in stronger sexual assault laws and has established several committees to recommend changes in the law.


India's fast-track courts

• Some 1,200 fast-track courts were operating in India as of March 2012
• In Delhi, six fast-track courts were ordered for the trial of cases related to crimes against women, especially rape. Some other states such as Punjab and Maharashtra are also setting up fast-track courts for this purpose
• In 2000, central government started a scheme for more than 1,700 fast-track courts to try to clear the backlog of cases clogging up the Indian judicial system, partly related to a shortage of judges
• Funding is an issue because the central government said it could no longer fund them after March 2011, leaving future funding decisions to individual states
   

Six men have been arrested after kidnapping and raping a female bus passenger in the northern Indian state of Punjab. The arrests come after a similar New Delhi gang-rape case where the victim died from her injuries, triggering nationwide protests.

The victim was kidnapped after boarding a bus on January 11 to go to her in-laws’ house in a village in Gurdaspur. The bus passed through the woman’s bus stop and continued on to Gurdaspur town.

From there the driver and the conductor forced the woman on to a motorcycle and took her to an unknown location, where five more men joined them and raped the victim.

"The lady, after being kidnapped, was raped brutally throughout the night by the seven accused," officer Raj Jeet Singh told AFP.

Then one of the rapists dropped the woman off near her sister-in-law’s village from where the victim managed to walk home.

The woman reported the incident a day later by lodging a complaint at the Kahnuwan police station.

"Six men have been arrested on allegations of having raped a 29-year-old woman… after forcibly taking her to an unknown location on the night of January 11," Singh said, adding that they were searching for the seventh suspect.

Those arrested include the driver and the conductor. All six have already confessed to their crime, Singh said.

The extent of woman’s injuries is unclear.

The attack comes in the wake of a similar case when on December 16 a 23-year-old medical student was gang-raped and severely injured on a bus in Delhi, while her male companion was cruelly beaten.

Both were then stripped and thrown off the bus, after which the rapists tried to run the woman over, but her male companion managed to push her out of the way.

She later died from her injuries in hospital, triggering a wave of national protests.

Tens of thousands came out on the streets of India to demand tougher measures from the government to protect women from the daily threat of harassment and violence.

Fearing for their safety, hundreds of Indian women applied for firearm licenses and joined self-defense classes.

In response to public uproar, India’s ruling Congress Party is drafting the new legislation for submission to the Justice Verma Committee, charged with reassessing current rape laws and suggesting changing them to ensure greater safety for women.

The document stipulates a maximum jail sentence of 30 years for those convicted of rape and the introduction of chemical castration as a punitive measure, writes the Indian Express.

Additionally, the Indian government heard calls from the Bharatiya Janata Party to hold an emergency parliamentary session to discuss women’s safety.

New Delhi, with a population of nearly 17 million people, has the highest number of reported sex crimes of all India's cities. The number of reported rape cases in the capital has risen since 2011 to 17 per cent, with 661 last year, government figures revealed.

According to police statistics, a rape is reported on average every 18 hours, and a sexual assault occurs every 14 hours in the capital.

However victims of rape often do not come forward to the police in India for fear of shaming their families or being ignored by police, skewing the statistics.
 

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister Salman Khurshid said on Saturday the government will not buckle to "wild calls for revenge and reaction" over the killing and beheading of two Indian soldiers by Pakistani troops.

The lawyer representing three of the men charged with the gang rape and murder of a medical student aboard a moving bus in New Delhi has blamed the victims for the assault, saying he has never heard of a “respected lady” being raped in India.

Manohar Lal Sharma’s comments come as Indians have reacted with outrage to the opinions of politicians and a religious preacher who have accused westernized women of inviting sexual assaults.

Sharma said the male companion of the murdered 23- year-old was “wholly responsible” for the incident as the unmarried couple should not have been on the streets at night.

“Until today I have not seen a single incident or example of rape with a respected lady,” Sharma said in an interview at a cafe outside the Supreme Court in India’s capital. “Even an underworld don would not like to touch a girl with respect.”

Sharma’s comments highlight frequently aired attitudes toward women in India. Activists say reporting of sex crimes and police investigations of rape are hindered by a tendency to blame the victim for not following the traditional, conservative social roles ascribed to women.

“This is the mentality which most Indian men are suffering from unfortunately,” said Ranjana Kumari, director for the New Delhi-based Centre for Social Research. “That is the mindset that has been perpetrating this crime because they justify it indirectly, you asked for it so it is your responsibility.”

‘Chant God’s Name’

A spiritual guru, Asharam, sparked an outcry earlier this week when he said the New Delhi victim was equally responsible and should have “chanted God’s name and fallen at the feet of the attackers” to stop the assault.

Mohan Bhagwat, the head of the pro-Hindu Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh that underpins the country’s main opposition political party, said rapes only occur in Indian cities, not in its villages, because women there adopt western lifestyles.

Sharma said the man and woman should not have been traveling back late in the evening and making their journey on public transport. He also said it was the man’s responsibility to protect the woman and that he had failed in his duty.

“The man has broken the faith of the woman,” Sharma said yesterday. “If a man fails to protect the woman, or she has a single doubt about his failure to protect her, the woman will never go with that man.”

Sharma, 56, a Supreme Court lawyer for the last two decades, says that his clients are innocent.
Courtroom Chaos

“This is a very complicated case and the matter has not been solved yet,” he said. Police have said they have DNA evidence linking all six to the crime.

The defendants were brought into court today protected by more than 20 police for a brief hearing. Sharma said the court was adjourned after he had filed an application requesting the charge sheet be given to the men in Hindi rather than English. The next court date will be Jan. 14.

Ram Singh, the driver of the bus and the alleged ringleader, is struggling to communicate and fluctuating between crying and laughing, Sharma said. Sharma, who has also been appointed to represent Singh’s brother Mukesh and Akshay Kumar Singh, who is unrelated, plans to challenge police over their handling of the evidence.

Sharma’s appointment comes after chaotic scenes on Jan. 7 that forced the magistrate to order a private hearing over concerns for the safety of the accused. Sharma was one of two lawyers denounced by other advocates for volunteering to represent the defendants. Arguments and scuffles over his offer led the magistrate to order the court room be cleared and future sessions to be held behind closed doors.

Becoming Doctor

The gang rape of the woman on Dec. 16 provoked a sustained and charged debate about the safety of women in the world’s biggest democracy. The brutality of the crime and allegations by the male friend of the victim that it took police 45 minutes to respond to calls outraged the nation.

Describing the victim’s battle for life, her father said in an interview with British television channel ITV yesterday that he was initially optimistic that she would survive the attack. He said his daughter’s ambition was to be a doctor.

“Her main aim was that our family wouldn’t have to suffer any more,” the father said, his face blurred by the channel to protect his identity.

The attack on the woman and her friend, which led to her death almost two weeks later, forced the government to address demands for swifter justice, safer streets and heavier sentences in rape cases. India’s top court on Jan. 4 began considering demands for faster trials and the suspension of lawmakers accused of sex crimes.
Three Illiterate

Sharma said he met the defendants for the first time on Jan. 7 for 15 minutes and was due to talk with them again yesterday. The three defendants he is representing put their thumb prints on forms appointing Sharma as their lawyer because they are illiterate, according to a copy of the documents given to Bloomberg News.

Five of the six accused will be tried for abduction, rape and murder, among other charges, government prosecutor Rajiv Mohan said Jan. 6. The other, said to be a juvenile, has been appearing before a separate judicial panel.

The male friend of the woman who was repeatedly raped and brutalized aboard the bus last month has recounted the two-hour attack which ended with the couple being thrown on to the roadside, ignored by passersby and argued over by police.
‘Seeking Revenge’

In a Jan. 4 interview with the Zee News television channel, the man, who along with the rape victim hasn’t been officially identified, described how they were lured on to the bus operating illegally on the night of Dec. 16 as they returned home from a movie theater in a southern neighborhood of the Indian capital.

The six men aboard the bus, “which had tinted windows and curtains, had laid a trap for us,” he told the channel. “They beat us up, hit us with an iron rod, snatched our clothes and belongings and threw us off the bus on a deserted stretch.” The woman, who was flown to Singapore for medical treatment, died in the hospital Dec. 29.

Sharma says there are number of discrepancies in the police’s version of the events, which he will reveal in court. The only example he was willing to give is the failure of the police almost three weeks after the attack to determine whether one of the accused is a juvenile.

Sharma criticized the lawyers of a local district association who have said no advocates should represent the accused.

“These people are just seeking revenge,” Sharma said. “They are not seeking justice. A defendant has a right to a lawyer, this is a basic principle of a modern society.”