Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: As per preliminary post mortem report, December 16 Delhi gang-rape accused Ram Singh died due to hanging, ruling out the possibility that he was strangulated to death.
Reports said Ram Singh’s body had no antemortem injuries (injuries a body has received before death. They may be a contributing factor in the death or even its cause. Alternatively, they may occur many years ago).
The time of death was between 4.30 am and 4.45 am, as per the autopsy report.
Importantly, the big question is whether Ram Singh hanged himself or was he hanged by someone else - the post mortem is not clear on whether he committed suicide.
Meanwhile, defence lawyer Manoj Tomar said that he had seen Ram Singh‘s body. As per him, the body had multiple injuries with right collar bone being damaged. There were scratch marks on the body, Tomar said, adding, “Ram Singh did not commit suicide.”
After initial reports suggested Singh committed suicide, jail authorities and the government have been mum on the cause of the death – they had only said he was found hanging inside his cell.
Ram Singh's family will be handed over the body after the autopsy, reports said.
The family has alleged that he was murdered and demanded a CBI probe into the incident. "He has not committed suicide. He has been murdered and then hanged. I am saying this on the basis of the fact that evidences has been erased. He could not move his hand as it had fractures.
Ram Singh, 35, was seen hanging at 5.45 am by a Tamil Nadu policeman in the prison's Jail No. 3 - 84 days after the horrendous gang-rape. He used a part of bed linen to hang from an iron grille eight feet high in his 15x12 rectangular cell.
He was arrested from a Delhi slum where he lived Dec 17 -- a day after he and five others, including a juvenile, raped the physiotherapist trainee, a crime that shook the collective conscience of the country and made for shocking news across the world.
While the woman was brutally raped, her friend was thrashed. Both were flung out of the bus, bleeding and without clothes. The woman died 13 days later in Singapore.
Tihar officials had earlier said that Ram Singh was on "suicide watch", after he and the other accused reportedly became depressed. The watch was lifted later, they said.
Ram Singh, who had confessed to the crime, had been charged on 13 counts. One of the five accused is his younger brother Mukesh. All are being tried in fast-track court.
Lawyers said Ram Singh's death would not affect the trial. He was supposed to go to the court Monday.
The others accused in the case are Pawan, 19, and Akshay, 29, who are held in Tihar Jail No. 4, Vinay, 20, and Mukesh, 26, both in Jail No. 7. The sixth accused is a juvenile, lodged and being tried separately.
First Published: Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 09:17