Singapore: The body of an Indian woman who died at a Singapore hospital where she was being treated following a brutal gang-rape in New Delhi was flown out of the city-state early today, a diplomat said.
India’s high commissioner in Singapore T C A Raghavan told the chartered plane carrying the remains of the unnamed victim took off from Changi Airport at 12:30am.
The body, lying in a gold-coloured coffin wrapped in a white cloth, was transported to the cargo complex of the airport in a van more than three hours earlier after it was prepared at a funeral home.
The rape victim was airlifted to Singapore on Thursday for treatment at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital following the savage attack in New Delhi on December 16, but she succumbed to her injuries early yesterday.
The student was attacked by six men on a bus who took turns to rape her and assaulted her with an iron bar before throwing her and her male companion off the moving vehicle.
The Singapore hospital said in a statement she had “suffered from severe organ failure following serious injuries to her body and brain” after doctors laboured overnight in a dramatic, last-ditch effort to save her life.
She had been unconscious since her arrival in Singapore on an air ambulance, and some critics in India said she should not have been transported due to her condition.
Indian ambassador Raghavan spoke of the anguish the family had to endure.
“The girl of course was unconscious... I must say they (the family) bore the entire process with a great deal of fortitude and a great deal of courage,” he told reporters yesterday.
Following her death, the woman’s body was sent to a morgue at another hospital and then brought to the Hindu Casket funeral parlour.
AFP
