STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Police file charges against the accused men in a New Delhi court
- They are alleged to have raped a woman on a bus, leaving her with fatal injuries
- The victim's father says he supports naming a tougher anti-rape law after her
- Bar association leaders in the district where it happened urge lawyers not to take defendants' case
The men accused in the gang rape and
killing of a 23-year-old Indian woman were formally charged with murder,
rape and kidnapping in a New Delhi court Thursday, a senior police
official said.
The attack on the woman,
who died from her severe injuries last week, has appalled and enraged
many Indians, prompting widespread debate over the way the country
handles sexual assaults and the treatment of women in Indian society.
Numerous protests have
taken place, new laws have been proposed and senior lawyers in the court
district where the accused men have been charged say they will not
represent them.
Police submitted charges
against five suspects before a new fast-track court in Saket, a southern
district of New Delhi, said Suman Nalwa, deputy police commissioner of a
special unit for women and children.
Photos: India rape protest
He said authorities were
waiting for the outcome of a bone marrow test before deciding whether a
sixth suspect in the attack, believed to be a minor, will be charged as a
juvenile or an adult.
The results of the test, intended to determine the suspect's exact age, should come soon, Nalwa said.
The trial will begin this week once all the evidence is gathered, he said.
As well as counts of
murder, kidnapping and rape, the men face charges including voluntarily
causing harm during a robbery, armed robbery with murder, and
destruction of evidence. If convicted, several of the offenses are
punishable by death or life imprisonment.
Rape victim's father calls for death penalty
Professor: Indian law reform not enough
Heavy security for India rape protest
The victim, whose name
has not been released, died Saturday in a Singapore hospital, where she
received treatment after being airlifted from New Delhi.
The men are accused of
assaulting the woman and her male companion on a bus in the Indian
capital on December 16, robbing them of their belongings before dumping
them at the side of a road, police said.
The male companion was eventually discharged from a local hospital.
Protests, which have been taking place every day since the woman's death, continued Thursday in New Delhi.
Authorities plan to seek
the death penalty for the accused, CNN affiliate IBN reported, with
many calls for the men to be hanged, including from the victim's family.
If the sixth accused is
confirmed to be a minor, he could be sent to a children's home for a
maximum of three years, according to IBN.
The 11 lawyers who make
up the executive board of the Saket Bar Association on Wednesday vowed
not to represent any of the accused assailants because of the nature of
the crime.
In addition, the bar
association has appealed to its 7,000 members also to refrain from
representing the accused, said the association's president, Rajpal
Kasana.
"We are not taking this case on the grounds of humanity," he said.
The boycott by the bar
association does not mean the accused will not have lawyers. Attorneys
from other districts or ones appointed by the court will likely fill
that role.
The call for local
lawyers to avoid defending the accused is unprecedented, but justified
because "everyone is emotionally attached to this case," Kasana said.
Lawmakers are weighing a
proposal to toughen the country's anti-rape law. Some have suggested a
new law should be named after the woman, while others have said it's
illegal to reveal her identity.
The victim's father told IBN that he supported naming a new law after his daughter.
"All I ask is that the
law is the toughest it can be," he said. "The death penalty is
compulsory for a crime so grave the assailants must be hanged. The
courts must give these men the death penalty."
CNN iReporter Meera Vijayann,
a consultant for a non-governmental organization from Bangalore, India,
said sexual harassment is a daily problem for women -- but it was the
horrific nature of the New Delhi attack and the brazenness of the
alleged perpetrators that frightened so many people.
Despite calls for
harsher punishments for those who carry out such crimes, Vijayann feels
only a change in attitudes and culture will truly bring about change.
"There is a sexist
mindset, politicians have made silly remarks about women and how they
should wear modest clothes, not go to parties ... if they make the laws
how will it benefit us?" she asked. "People have to change the way they
think."
India's Supreme Court
will hear a petition Thursday asking it to suspend all lawmakers who
face charges for crimes against women. The petition was filed in the
aftermath of the brutal gang rape, which sent thousands of outraged
protesters to the streets for days.
"This unfortunate
episode has galvanized the nation," said Jagdeep S. Chhokar, an official
with the Association for Democratic Reforms, which tracks political
candidates' criminal records.
Chhokar said six Indian
state lawmakers are facing rape charges in unrelated cases, and two
people in the federal parliament are also facing charges of crimes
against women that fall short of rape.
The group says that in
the past five years, political parties across India have nominated 260
candidates facing charges of crimes against women such as assault and
outraging the modesty of a woman.
A young Nigerian army officer Lt Mayowa Areago, (pictured above) was
shot dead three days ago while retreating from a mission to fight the
Boko Haram in Borno
state. According to his friends who sent in his photos, he graduated
from Nigerian Defence Academy in 2012 and was immediately posted to the
North to help in the fight against Boko Haram.
