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Rape accused given slow poison in food
Vinay Sharma was rushed to the state-run Lok Nayak Hospital in New Delhi on Tuesday with chest injuries after he was assaulted in Tihar Jail, lawyer A. P. Singh said, also alleging that his clients food had been poisoned. He was vomiting blood and running a very high fever. He was also suffering from chest pains. He is in a very critical condition, Singh said. The chest pains came after Sharma, 20, was beaten up and thrashed by fellow inmates at the maximum-security jail, the lawyer added.
He was being given food mixed with poison since the start of this month. He was first admitted to the clinic inside the jail but was later moved to a city hospital. He was shifted again to another hospital when his condition worsened on Tuesday, Singh said. The head of the hospital refused to comment on the case, while there was no immediate reaction from authorities at Tihar. One of Sharmas co-defendants, bus driver Ram Singh, was found hanged in his cell in the same prison in March. Although an inquest ruled he had committed suicide his lawyers allege that he was murdered. Sharma is one of four adults still on trial for the murder and gang-rape of a 23-year-old student who was attacked on a bus on December 16. The victim died of her injuries in a Singapore hospital 13 days later. A fifth defendant, who is aged 17, is being tried in a juvenile court. The defendants have all entered not-guilty pleas and their lawyers have accused police of torturing the defendants to obtain confessions. Prosecutors say they have DNA evidence linking the defendants to the attack in which the student and a male companion were assaulted on a bus as it was driven around the city, having been picked up after a trip to the cinema. The case led to months of soul-searching over widespread sexual crime in India, and resulted in tougher laws to punish rapists. Posted by: Steve White 2013-05-16 |
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