The family of Ram Singh, the accused in the December 16 gangrape-murder of a 23-year-old paramedic student, claimed that he did not commit suicide but was murdered and then hanged in Tihar Jail. The family demanded an inquiry into his death.
Ram Singh’s uncle Mangilal Singh said that his son feared for his life. “He was killed and then hanged. He told us several times that he was constantly threatened in jail. We had lodged a complaint in this regard,” he said.
“He told me that his life was in danger and that he had been sodomised by fellow inmates,” he recalled.
Prison authorities say that Ram Singh rigged up a noose out of his own clothes and then attached it to a grill to hang himself.
Mangilal Singh, however, said that Ram Singh was incapable of doing any such thing due to the debility in his one hand as a result of injury sustained in a road accident few years ago.
“He couldn’t have committed suicide with just one hand,” said the uncle.
Ram Singh’s mother, Kalyani Devi, said that her son had shown her evidence that he had been tortured since his arrest.
“He made a mistake. He admitted that to us. But even God forgives one mistake. He was not even given a chance to repent. We want an inquiry into the matter,” she said.
Mangilal said, “He was murdered, he has not committed suicide. We are waiting for the post-mortem and the forensic reports.”