The brutal attack on Jyoti Singh aboard a city bus sparked nationwide demonstrations and shone a spotlight on the alarming rates of sexual violence in India. A trial court in Delhi, which had already postponed the hangings three times, on Thursday dismissed another plea to delay the executions scheduled for 5:30am (0000 GMT) Friday. One challenged the rejection of his mercy plea by the president, the last remedy available to death-row convicts in India. Singh, 23, was returning home from the cinema in the evening with a friend when they boarded a bus, thinking it would take them home. The five men and one juvenile knocked the friend unconscious and dragged Singh to the back of the bus, and raped and tortured her with a metal rod.

Source: Dhaka Tribune March 19, 2020 18:11 UTC