The victim of a gang-rape in New Delhi was cremated at a private ceremony on Sunday, igniting fresh protests across India over her death.
The unidentified medical student died in a Singapore hospital on Saturday, where she was flown by the government on Wednesday. Doctors were reportedly unable to prevent a multiple organ failure and pronounced her dead in the early hours of Saturday.
Her body was cremated at a ceremony kept secret by authorities only hours after being repatriated from Singapore, AFP reports.
On Sunday, thousands of people gathered in the Indian capital to express outpouring grief and revulsion over the victim’s death.
“She was not just one woman, she epitomizes every Indian woman who has been wronged in some way or the other,” a protester told AFP.
It also emerged the medical student was due to wed her boyfriend who was injured in the same attack where she was savagely raped on a moving bus in New Delhi two weeks ago.
“They had made all the wedding preparations and had planned a wedding party in Delhi,” according to a close friend and neighbor who spoke to journalists.
While the protests gained momentum, political leaders from the Congress party proposed jail sentences of up to 30 years for rape, fast-track systems for prosecuting sex crimes and chemical castration.
