The victim of a gang rape in India was airlifted to a hospital in Singapore as public anger over the crime intensifies.
The 23-year old medical student was in an “extremely critical condition” in the intensive care unit, after undergoing three abdominal operations and suffering cardiac arrest while still in New Delhi, a spokesman from the Mount Elizabeth Hospital said on Thursday evening.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh vowed to protect the nation’s women from such violence following the cabinet’s rare decision to transfer the victim to Singapore and pay her medical costs, reports the Financial Times.
“There can be no meaningful development without the active participation of half the population, and this participation simply cannot take place if their safety and security is not assured,” Mr. Singh told a gathering of chief ministers.
India’s government on Wednesday has also appointed a retired woman judge to investigate the rape and allay public outrage.
The young student was sexually assaulted and brutalized with an iron rod by six men while on a moving bus.
