Dec 16 gang-rape convict attempts suicide in Tihar Jail
NEW DELHI: Vinay Sharma, one of the four convicts sentenced to death in the December 16, 2012, gang-rape of a physiotherapy student Nirbhaya, attempted suicide inside Tihar Jail on Wednesday night. Sources said the incident was reported to the jail authorities at around 9:30 pm when Sharma, lodged in the High Security Ward of Jail Number 8, allegedly started shouting and raised an alarm that he had taken an overdose of anti-depressant pills and tried to hang himself from an iron grill of his cell using a cloth.
He was caught by the alert Tamil Nadu Special Police personnel who further informed the higher authorities. The medical staff posted inside the jail was called in. However, Sharma allegedly continued to complain of internal pain and was therefore, rushed to the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital. Post-treatment, doctors at the government hospital confirmed that Sharma was out of danger.
Sources said that Sharma had consumed a heavy dose of anti-depressant pills before trying to commit suicide. Sharma was suffering from depression and was on medication. On March 2013, prime accused in the gang rape case, Ram Singh was found dead after he committed suicide by hanging himself at the Tihar. Following this, proceedings against him were subsequently abated.
“We have set up an enquiry into the matter. How was Sharma in possession of so many anti-depressant pills is being investigated,” said a jail official. Sources said that in 2013, Vinay Sharma had complained about being tortured by fellow inmates. Based on this, he was transferred to the High Security Jail.
In December 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was brutally assaulted and gang-raped by six persons in a moving bus in South Delhi’s Vasant Vihar area. 13 days later, Nirbhaya (as the woman was named) died in a Singapore Hospital. Out of the six, four convicts, Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Singh and Pawan Gupta were sentenced to death in the case. The juvenile accused in the case was convicted and sentenced to a maximum of three years at a reformation home. In December, 2015, he was released from the observation home.