A female student gang-raped on
a bus in India's capital Delhi is "fighting for her life" at a
Singapore hospital, doctors say.
The 23-year-old victim - who remains on life support -
has suffered "significant brain injury".
The victim, who may require an organ transplant, has
been admitted to Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital.
"The patient is currently struggling against the
odds, and fighting for her life," Kelvin Loh, chief executive officer of
Mount Elizabeth Hospital, said in a statement.
"Our medical team's investigations upon her
arrival at the hospital yesterday showed that in addition to her prior cardiac
arrest, she also had infection of her lungs and abdomen, as well as significant
brain injury."
Dr Loh said that multi-disciplinary team of
specialists has been "working tirelessly to treat her since her arrival,
and is doing everything possible to stabilise her condition over the next few
days".
India's Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said in a
statement said the government had decided to send the victim overseas on the
recommendation of her doctors.
"Despite the best efforts of our doctors, the
victim continues to be critical and her fluctuating health remains a big cause
of concern to all of us," he said.
The government has tried to halt rising public anger
by announcing a series of measures intended to make Delhi safer for women.
These include more police night patrols, checks on bus
drivers and their assistants, and the banning of buses with tinted windows or
curtains.
The government has also said that it will post the
photos, names and addresses of convicted rapists on official websites to shame
them.
It has set up two committees - one looking into
speeding up trials of cases involving sexual assaults on women, and the other
to examine the lapses that might have led to the incident in Delhi.
But the protesters say the government's pledge to seek
life sentences for the attackers is not enough - many are calling for the death
penalty.
The victim and her friend had been to see a film when
they boarded the bus in the Munirka area, intending to travel to Dwarka in
south-west Delhi.
Police said she was raped for nearly an hour, and both
she and her companion were beaten with iron bars and thrown out of the moving
bus into a Delhi street.
BBC News.
