The 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder, commonly known as the Nirbhaya case, involved the gang rape and murder of a 22-year-old woman, Jyoti Singh, in a moving bus on 16 December 2012 in Munirka, a neighbourhood in Delhi, India. The assault took place when Jyoti, a physical therapy intern, was beaten, gang raped, and tortured in a private bus in which she was travelling with her friend, Avnindra Pratap Pandey. There were six other men in the bus, including the driver, all of whom raped the woman and beat her friend. She was rushed to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi for treatment and, as the public outrage mounted, the government had her transferred to Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore eleven days after the assault, where she died from her injuries two days later. The incident generated widespread national and international coverage and was widely condemned, both in India and abroad. Subsequently, public protests against the Government of Delhi and the Government of India for failing to provide adequate security for women took place in New Delhi, where thousands of protesters clashed with security forces. Similar protests took place in major cities throughout the country. Since Indian law does not allow the press to publish a rape victim's name, the victim was widely known as Nirbhaya, meaning "fearless", and her struggle and death became a symbol of women's resistance to rape around the world.
All the accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. One of the accused, Ram Singh, died in police custody from possible suicide on 11 March 2013. According to some published reports and the police, Ram Singh hanged himself, but the defence lawyers and his family allege he was murdered. The rest of the accused went on trial in a fast-track court; the prosecution finished presenting its evidence on 8 July 2013. On 10 September 2013, the four adult defendants – Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur and Mukesh Singh (Ram Singh's brother) – were found guilty of rape and murder and three days later were sentenced to death. In the death reference case and hearing appeals on 13 March 2014, Delhi High Court upheld the guilty verdict and the death sentences. On 18 December 2019, the Supreme Court of India rejected the final appeals of the condemned perpetrators of the attack. The four adult convicts were executed by hanging on 20 March 2020. The juvenile was convicted of rape and murder under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 and given the maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment in a reform facility.
As a result of the protests, in December 2012, a judicial committee was set up to study and take public suggestions for the best ways to amend laws to provide quicker investigation and prosecution of sex offenders. After considering about 80,000 suggestions, the committee submitted a report which indicated that failures on the part of the government and police were the root cause behind crimes against women. In 2013, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 was promulgated by President Pranab Mukherjee, several new laws were passed, and six new fast-track courts were created to hear rape cases. Critics argue that the legal system remains slow to hear and prosecute rape cases, but most agree that the case has resulted in a tremendous increase in the public discussion of crimes against women and statistics show that there has been an increase in the number of women willing to file a crime report. However, in December 2014, two years after the attack, the victim's father called the promises of reform unmet and said that he felt regret in that he had not been able to bring justice for his daughter and other women like her.
Incident
The victims, a 22-year-old woman, Jyoti Singh and her male friend were returning home on the night of 16 December 2012 after watching the film Life of Pi at PVR Nexus Select Citywalk, Saket. They took an auto rickshaw to Munirka bus stand, then boarded the bus at Munirka for Dwarka at about 9:30 pm (IST). There were only six others in the bus, including the driver. One of the men, identified as a minor, had called for passengers telling them that the bus was going towards their destination. They took ₹10 each as fare from both the victims. The victim's male friend became suspicious when the bus deviated from its normal route and its doors were shut. When he objected, the group of six men already on board, including the driver, taunted the couple, asking what they were doing alone at such a late hour.
During the argument, a scuffle ensued between her friend and the group of men. He was beaten, gagged and knocked unconscious with an iron rod. The men then dragged Singh to the rear of the bus, beating her with the rod and raping her while the bus driver continued to drive. A medical report later said that she suffered serious injuries to her abdomen, intestines and genitals due to the assault, and doctors said that the damage indicated that a blunt object (suspected to be the iron rod) may have been used for penetration. That rod was later described by police as being a rusted, L-shaped implement of the type used as a wheel jack handle.
According to police reports, Jyoti attempted to fight off her assailants, biting three of the attackers and leaving bite marks on the accused men.
After the beatings and rape ended, the attackers threw both victims from the moving bus. One of the perpetrators later cleaned the vehicle to remove evidence. Police impounded it the next day.
The partially clothed victims were found on the road by a passerby at around 11 pm. The passerby called the Delhi Police who took the couple to Safdarjung Hospital, where Jyoti was given emergency treatment and placed on mechanical ventilation. She was found with injury marks, including numerous bite marks, all over her body. According to reports, one of the accused men admitted to having seen a rope-like object, assumed to be her intestines, being pulled out of the woman by the other assailants on the bus. Two blood-stained metal rods were retrieved from the bus and medical staff confirmed that "it was penetration by this that caused massive damage to her genitals, uterus and intestines".
Victims
Jyoti Singh was born in Delhi on 10 May 1990, the eldest of three children and the only daughter of a lower middle class family. Her parents hailed from a small village in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh. While Jyoti's mother is a homemaker, her father worked double shifts (two jobs) to support his family and send his children to good schools. In an interview, he related that as a youth, he had dreamed of becoming a teacher, but his family could not afford to support his education beyond high school. After moving to Delhi, he worked at a pressure cooker factory, as a security guard and eventually a luggage loader. He said, "when I left [his village] 30 years ago, I vowed never deny my children so sending them to school was fulfilling my desire for knowledge." He said, "It never entered our hearts to ever discriminate. How could I be happy if my son is happy and my daughter isn't? And it was impossible to refuse a little girl who loved going to school."
Jyoti Singh graduated in physiotherapy from the Sai Institute of Paramedical & Allied Sciences in Dehradun, and had just applied for an intern's position at St. Stephen's Hospital, Delhi. She lived in Delhi and occasionally visited her family's ancestral village.
In compliance with Indian law, the real name of the victim was initially not released to the media, so pseudonyms were used for her by various media houses instead, including Jagruti (awareness), Amanat (treasure), Nirbhaya (fearless one), Damini (lightning, after the hit 1993 Hindi film) and Delhi braveheart.
The male victim, Avindra Pratap Pandey, was a software engineer from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, who lived in Ber Sarai, New Delhi; he suffered broken limbs but survived.
Delhi police registered a criminal case against the editor of a Delhi-based tabloid, Mail Today, for disclosing the female victim's identity, as such disclosure is an offence under section 228(A) of Indian Penal Code. Shashi Tharoor, then a union minister, suggested that if the parents had no objection, her identity could be made public, as a mark of respect for her courageous response, with the possibility of naming future laws after her. Speaking to a British reporter on 5 January, the victim's father was quoted as saying, "We want the world to know her real name. My daughter didn't do anything wrong, she died while protecting herself. I am proud of her. Revealing her name will give courage to other women who have survived these attacks. They will find strength from my daughter." Indian law forbids revealing the name of a rape victim unless the family agrees to it and, following the news article which published the father's reported quote and the victim's name, some news outlets in India, Germany, Australia, and the United States also revealed her name. However, the following day Zee News quoted the father as saying, "I have only said we won't have any objection if the government uses my daughter's name for a new law for crime against women that is more stringent and better framed than the existing one." During a protest against the juvenile convict's release on 16 December 2015, the victim's mother stated that her daughter's name was Jyoti Singh and she was not ashamed of disclosing her name.
Medical treatment and death
On 19 December 2012, Singh underwent her fifth surgery, which removed most of her remaining intestine. Doctors reported that she was in "stable but critical" condition. On 21 December, the government appointed a committee of doctors to ensure she received the best medical care. By 25 December, she remained intubated, on life support and in critical condition. Doctors stated that she had a fever of 102 to 103 °F (39 °C) and that internal bleeding due to sepsis was somewhat controlled. It was reported that she was "stable, conscious and meaningfully communicative".
At a cabinet meeting chaired by then-Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh on 26 December, a decision was made to fly her to Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore for further treatment. Mount Elizabeth is a multi-organ transplant specialty hospital. Some doctors criticised the decision as political, questioning the need to transfer an intensive care unit (ICU) patient for organ transplants that were not scheduled for weeks or even months. Government sources indicated that then Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, was personally behind the decision. Hours earlier, then-Union Minister P. Chidambaram had stated that Jyoti was not in a condition to be moved.
During the six-hour air-ambulance flight to Singapore on 27 December, Jyoti suddenly went into a "near collapse", which a later report described as cardiac arrest. The doctors on board inserted an arterial line to stabilise her, but she had been without a pulse and blood pressure for nearly three minutes and never regained consciousness in Singapore.
On 28 December, at 11 am (IST), Jyoti's condition was extremely critical. The chief executive officer of the Mount Elizabeth Hospital said that the victim suffered brain damage, pneumonia, and abdominal infection, and that she was "fighting for her life." Her condition continued to deteriorate, and she died at 4:45 am on 29 December, Singapore Standard Time (2:15 am, 29 December, IST; 8:45 pm, 28 December, UTC). Her body was cremated on 30 December in Delhi under high police security. The Bharatiya Janata Party, then the country’s main opposition party, criticised the high-security measures, stating that they were reminiscent of The Emergency Era, during which civil liberties were suspended. One of Jyoti's brothers later remarked that the decision to fly her out to Singapore had come too late, and they had held high hopes for her recovery prior to her death.
Arrests
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to investigate the case, which was led by Pramod Kumar Kushwaha, the Deputy Commissioner of Delhi Police's Special Cell.
Police found and arrested some suspects within 24 hours of the crime. From recordings made by a highway CCTV, a description of the bus, a white charter bus with a name written on it, was broadcast. Other operators identified it as being contracted by a South Delhi private school. They then traced it and found its driver, Ram Singh. Police obtained sketches of the assailants with the help of the male victim, and used a mobile phone stolen from the two victims to find one of the assailants.
Six men were arrested in connection with the incident. They included 30-year-old Ram Singh, the bus driver, and his 26-year-old brother, Mukesh Singh, who were both arrested in Rajasthan. Ram and Mukesh Singh lived in Ravidas camp, a slum in South Delhi. 20-year-old Vinay Sharma, an assistant gym instructor, and 19-year-old Pawan Gupta, a fruit seller, were both arrested in UP and Bihar. A 17-year-old juvenile named Mohammed Afroz, from Budaun, Uttar Pradesh, was arrested at the Anand Vihar Terminal railway station in Delhi. The juvenile had only met the others that day. 28-year-old Akshay Thakur, who had come to Delhi seeking employment, was the final suspect to be arrested in Aurangabad, Bihar; he was married with one son at the time of his arrest.
According to reports, the group had been eating and drinking together and "having a party" earlier in the day. Although the charter bus which Ram Singh drove on weekdays was not permitted to pick up public passengers or even to operate in Delhi because of its tinted windows, they decided to take it out "to have some fun". A few hours before committing the gang rape, the attackers had robbed a carpenter. The carpenter was 35-year-old Ramadhir Singh (unrelated to Ram, Mukesh and Jyoti), who boarded the bus that was being driven by Mukesh Singh. The juvenile convict had lured him into the bus saying it was going to Nehru Place. He was then beaten up and robbed of his mobile phone and ₹1500 in cash. After robbing him, the group dumped him at the IIT Flyover. He reported the robbery to three police constables: Kailash, Ashok and Sandeep, who were passing nearby. They refused to take any action in response, saying that the crime scene wasn't under their purview as they were from the Hauz Khas police station, and that he would have to report the incident to the station in Vasant Vihar.
Shortly after the attacks, Pawan Gupta said he accepted his guilt and should be hanged. Mukesh Singh, who was placed in Tihar Jail after his arrest, was assaulted by other inmates and was kept in solitary confinement for his own protection.
Ram Singh was presented before the Metropolitan Magistrate on 18 December 2012. He refused to participate in an identification process.
Investigation revealed a history of frequent drinking that resulted in "blinding rage", "bad temper", and quarrels with employers, that had led friends to call him "mental". On 11 March, Ram Singh was discovered hanging from a ventilator shaft in his cell which he shared with 3 other prisoners, at about 5:45 a.m. Authorities said it was unclear whether it was a suicide or a murder.
Trial
The male victim, Avindra Pratap Pandey, testified in court on 19 December 2012. Pandey recorded his statement with a sub-divisional magistrate at the Safdarjung Hospital on 21 December, in the presence of the Deputy Commissioner of police. He was reportedly plagued with guilt and trauma over the incident.