India rape victim's body cremated in New Delhi
The body of a young woman who was gang-raped on a moving bus in India's capital has been cremated.
The body of a young woman who was gang-raped and brutally beaten on a moving bus in India s capital has been cremated.
Indian police have charged six men with murder in the attack, which shocked the country and triggered protests for greater protection for women from sexual violence.
The murder charges were laid Saturday, hours after the woman died in a Singapore hospital, where she had been flown for treatment.
Her body was cremated in a private ceremony Sunday in New Delhi soon after its arrival from Singapore on a special Air-India flight.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, head of the ruling Congress party, were at the airport to receive the body and meet family members of the victim who had also arrived on the flight.
The unidentified 23-year-old, the focus of nationwide protests since she was attacked on a bus in New Delhi two weeks ago, was cremated at a ceremony kept secret by authorities only hours after her body was repatriated from Singapore.
The funeral pyre was lit after traumatised relatives and friends said their final prayers at a ceremony in southwestern Delhi, according to mourners who revealed she had been due to wed a boyfriend who was injured in the same attack.
"They had made all the wedding preparations and had planned a wedding party in Delhi" for February, said Meena Rai, who was a close friend and neighbour. "I really loved this girl. She was the brightest of all."
