India Gang Rape Victim's Father Badri Singh Says 'Society Cannot Turn A Blind Eye Any Longer'

Father Of Gang Rape Victim Reveals Final Moments Of Hope For Daughter
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The father of the 23-year-old student who died after being brutally gang-raped in India's capital has described how even in her final moments, he hoped for her recovery.

Badri Singh told ITV's Daybreak that after his daughter was transferred to a Singapore hospital for specialist treatment, he allowed himself to hope she would get better.

He described how she had tears in her eyes as she lay in her hospital bed. He told the programme: "It was difficult for me, but when she was put on a ventilator it gave me some hope that she would get better. I thought she might get better and she would live.

"So when I thought she might get better, I used to get filled with some hope. When I was told that she might not get well and might have to have an operation I felt uncomfortable.

"When we went to Singapore she was not conscious but she had tears in her eyes. I realised she was in a really bad state."

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Mass demonstrations have been held in New Delhi

The medical student died in a Singapore hospital after suffering multiple organ failure and a heart attack.

During the rape, the victim was attacked by six men on a bus. A metal rod was inserted in her body as the bus drove around for 40 minutes. The sustained attack resulted in the removal of almost all of her intestines.

According to a police report seen by the Hindustan Times the youngest of the six suspects "extracted her intestine with his bare hands and suggested she be thrown off the moving vehicle devoid of her clothes."

The bus then tried to mow her and her companion Awindra Pandey down. The 28-year-old software engineer has told The Times how the pair were left lying in the road fo 20 minutes as motorists ignored their bloodied bodies.

"She was bleeding heavily. They (the police) asked me to put her in the van," he told the newspaper

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Outrage has galvanised the nation

Her injuries were so severe the decision to move her to a Singapore hospital has come under attack.

The government is being accused of trying to "run away from the problem", with doctors suggesting it would have been obvious from her injuries she would never recover. She died 48 hours after being transferred overseas, 13 days after the attack.

The sheer brutality of the rape has galvanised the nation into action, with angry protesters accusing the government of not doing enough to tackle violence against women.

Singh told Daybreak: "Society cannot any longer turn a blind eye to these sorts of incidences which are happening every day. We have to change ourselves. If there are no changes then these horrible things won’t stop. The public have to wake up now.

“If possible it would be nice to have some sort of law in her name. If a hospital or something nice can be named after her too, at least something good could have come out of all of this, or it’s just all pointless.”

Three of the men accused of rape and murder are to plead not guilty to the charges, their lawyer has revealed.

Lawyer M L Sharma told the AFP news agency he will challenge evidence the police claim they have linking the suspects with bloodstains on the victim's clothes. "Nothing is proven yet," he said outside the court.

Five men have appeared in court, with a sixth suspect expected to be tried separately in a juvenile court as he is 17. Under Indian law juveniles cannot be prosecuted for murder.

The suspects have been named as bus driver Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur.

The men are likely to face the death penalty if found guilty, despite the sentence rarely being passed in India.