A friend who was with the Indian student who died after being gang raped says things may be different if passers-by had stopped to help. Paul Chapman reports.
The family of a murdered Indian gang-rape victim have said their final prayers for the 23-year-old student.
India's treatment of women has been denounced as police charge the men accused of gang-rape, with murder.
Protest where Indians are calling for laws to be changed to protect women. Source: AP
ANOTHER girl, age 7, has been raped and murdered in India, as the country continues to call for change after a girl died from being gang raped on a bus and her alleged attackers have been bashed.
The United News of India said the girl had been abducted and attacked by a youth in the village of Harpur, in the state's Sonebhadra district, late Thursday and that police had detained the suspect.
The rape-murder occurred as five men are standing trial for the gang-rape of a 23-year-old student in New Delhi on a private bus as she tried to return home from the cinema with her boyfriend.
The victim died in a Singapore hospital 13 days after the attack, which triggered mass protests across India over the treatment of women and the rising incidence of sex crimes.
A defence lawyer has accused Indian police of beating confessions out of five men charged with murdering and gang raping the student.
Speaking before a hearing at which a magistrate is expected to transfer the case to a fast-track court, ML Sharma said his clients had been beaten while in custody and were innocent of the charges.
A spokesman for Delhi police refused to comment on the allegations.
Mr Sharma is defending three of the five adult defendants.
The three are expected to plead not guilty to a string of charges over the brutal attack on a moving bus on December 16 which sparked mass protests across India.
The other two defendants have yet to get themselves a lawyer, while a sixth accused, who is 17, will be tried in a juvenile court.
"All the accused have been badly beaten by the police and they have used the third degree to extract the statement that suits the evidence they have collected," Mr Sharma said outside Saket District Court in southern Delhi.
"My clients have been forced to confess to crimes that they did not commit."
The five were expected to appear again in court on Thursday after their first appearance on Monday was marred by chaotic scenes which led the presiding magistrate to order the court cleared.
The proceedings were expected to take place behind closed doors with media coverage restricted by a gagging order.
If the men are convicted, they could face the death penalty.
Police say the group lured the 23-year-old woman and a male companion onto the bus in New Delhi after they had spent the evening at the cinema and were trying to go home.
They then took it in turns to rape the woman and violate her with an iron bar as well as assault her partner before throwing them off the bus.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Mr Sharma was quoted as saying the male companion of the murdered 23-year-old was "wholly responsible" for the incident because 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," he told the financial newswire.
"Even an underworld don would not like to touch a girl with respect."
Mr Sharma told AFP that he had not been trying to smear the victim.
"I did speak to Bloomberg but did not say anything about the victim," he said.
"I only told them that women are respected in India, they are mothers, sisters, friends, but tell me which country respects a prostitute."
Asked if that meant he regarded the victim as a prostitute, Mr Sharma replied: "No, not at all, but I have to protect my clients and prove that they did not commit this heinous crime."
The victim died in a Singapore hospital 13 days after the attack, which triggered mass protests across India and soul-searching over the levels of violence against women.
Amnesty International wants Indian rape laws to meet the highest international standards. And it does not favour death penalty or chemical castration.
Amnesty International India has said this as part of its recommendations to the Justice Verma committee set up by the government in the wake of the December 16 gangrape of a young woman who died 13 days later.
Amnesty said that laws relating to violence against women must criminalise all forms of sexual and gender-based violence and minimise the potential for re-traumatisation of the victim.
It said that penalties for rape and other sexual offences must reflect the gravity of the crime but punishments that violate human rights - like the death penalty and chemical castration - should not be used.
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