A 23-year-old Indian woman who was gang-raped on a bus in the capital, New Delhi, died last night in a Singapore hospital.
The victim – who was on life support – suffered severe organ failure, doctors at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore said. The woman had been airlifted from India to the city amid great secrecy.
Her vital signs deteriorated, Kelvin Loh, chief executive of Mount Elizabeth Hospital, said in a statement. As of yesterday evening, the patient’s condition had been getting worse, he said.
The woman, identified as a medical student but who cannot be named for legal reasons, was under treatment in a leading Delhi hospital after she was thrown off a bus in the capital on December 16th after six men took turns to rape her in the moving vehicle.
She also suffered severe intestinal injuries after being assaulted with an iron bar, police and doctors treating her said. The brutal rape attack triggered violent public protests across the country, especially in Delhi, where one policeman died after clashing with female activists.
It also highlighted a crime that occurs daily every 28 minutes across India but which largely remains unreported as a majority of these crimes take place in rural India. Her death will increase pressure on the government to act.