On the night of December 16, 2012, several men attacked a young student who was accompanied by a friend. They sexually assaulted and tortured her on a moving bus. This case shocked India and sparked unprecedented protests about the vulnerability of women. It also led to changes in Indian laws regarding sexual assault. Today I will tell you all the details of Jyoti’s case.
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Jyoti was born on May 10, 1990, in Delhi, India. She was the daughter of Asha Devi and Badri Singh, who came from an ancestral village in the Uttar Pradesh region of northern India. In this case, we will see that the surname Singh is very common among those involved. This happens because in India, people have surnames according to the region they come from and their caste. In India, your surname determines your social class, your ease or difficulty in entering academic institutions, the development of your profession, and even who you will marry. In the case of Singh, the surname comes from the northern regions of India, and most people with this surname are Sikhs, one of the four main religious traditions of India.
The Singh family came from a small village in the north of the country, so they didn’t have many economic advantages. Because of this, in 1983, Badri decided to emigrate to the capital of India to find better job opportunities. However, things weren’t any easier in the capital. Badri started working in a washing machine factory and earned only 150 rupees a month, which was about 15 rupees at that time. Later, he started his own business selling voltage measuring devices, but the business didn’t do very well, so he decided to close it. Little by little, he was able to find better-paying jobs than before. He worked as a security guard and later as an aircraft loader at Delhi Airport, a job he held until the day of the incident, earning around 10,000 rupees a month, which would be about 50,000 euros, also working some overtime.
By then, the family had grown; besides Jyoti, the couple had two more children, born in 1993 and 1998. As Jyoti grew up, she proved to be a bright child. When her father was able to save enough, he enrolled his three children in a newly opened private school in the neighborhood where they lived, and Jyoti was the first girl to be admitted. Jyoti was an excellent student, so good that over time she began tutoring other children in English and mathematics. A fond anecdote her parents remember is that children usually cry when they are sent to school, but Jyoti was one of those children who cried if she didn’t go, even from a very young age. She said she wanted to be a doctor. In her free time, she was often seen reading the newspaper or books, and she liked to spend time at the city’s public library. She was a very feminine girl who liked to wear heels.
After graduating from high school and realizing she couldn’t study medicine because of the high cost, Jyoti decided to study physiotherapy. This also meant a great sacrifice for her parents, who sold a piece of land to pay for her education. Jyoti had to move to a different city, and to help out financially, she took a night job at a call center. At the time of the events, the young woman was finishing her university degree; in fact, she was already doing her internship. She dreamed of studying for a postgraduate degree or a master’s in the United States or the United Kingdom. She wanted to travel and see the world, but she also wanted to give her family a better life.
While she hoped to get married someday, at 23, it wasn’t in her short-term plans. She wanted to continue studying and working to earn a lot of money, and she hoped her husband would be an equally educated man, both academically and professionally. Like any girl her age, Jyoti had many friends, and although this wasn’t well-regarded in India, she also went out with male friends. One of them was Awindra Pandey, or Awiras Jyoti called him. He was a software engineer. Awindra, 28, who had been friends with Jyoti for several years, was dating her.
The young woman’s family has claimed that Awindra was just a friend, but the reality is that they were dating at the time. In India, it’s frowned upon for a young couple to meet and then date before having a formal relationship. Ideally, according to their culture, the man should ask for the woman’s hand in marriage directly. In fact, arranged marriages and dowries still exist, and people from different castes cannot and should not marry. I will explain the situation between Awindra and Jyoti a little more later. But what must be made clear is that they were dating. Although their families and some media outlets say it was just a friendship to avoid damaging Jyoti’s dignity, since India is an extremely patriarchal country.
In December 2012, Jyoti was on vacation and traveled to be with her family. On the afternoon of December 16, 2012, the young woman left her house wearing a pretty dress and heels to meet Awindra at the mall. That afternoon they strolled through the mall and ate ice cream, and since they had plenty of time, they decided to go to the cinema to see a movie whose protagonists were also of Indian origin. Two hours later, when the movie ended, Jyoti checked her phone and saw several missed calls and messages from her mother. This made her leave the mall a little hurriedly because she wanted to get home quickly.
It was around 8:30 at night when Awindra and Jyoti decided to take a tuk-tuk, but because of the time and the distance, none of the drivers wanted to take them to the suburb of Dwarka where Jyoti’s parents lived. From the mall to the neighborhood, it was about an hour’s drive. The problem was that due to the high crime rate, by about 9 p.m., nightlife in Delhi starts to die down, and the tuk-tuks in that area only made short trips. After several minutes, Jyoti and Awindra managed to convince one of the drivers to take them to the bus stop about 15 minutes from the mall.
At the stop, buses were scarce, so when they saw the first bus, Jyoti didn’t think twice. Awindra, for his part, didn’t like the appearance of the bus. It had tinted windows and curtains; it didn’t look like a public transport bus, but rather a private one. However, the boy next to the driver got off to shout the route and attract people, just like a public transport bus does. The initial plan was for Jyoti to get on the bus to return home, but since Awindra wasn’t very convinced, he decided to get on with her so she wouldn’t be alone and to provide her with more security. Once on, they saw that there were already some passengers, but they were all men. In total, there were four passengers: the driver and the driver’s assistant.
Awindra stated that he got on the bus feeling that something was wrong. The boy accompanying the driver approached them and immediately demanded their money. The bus doors closed and the lights went out as the bus moved forward. Awindra realized that it was going in the opposite direction of the route, so he confronted the boy and the driver. From that precise moment, the other people on board the bus began to mock Awindra and Jyoti. Quickly, the mockery transformed into violence. Insults were hurled, and suddenly they were cornered by three of the men. One of them punched Awindra in the face, starting a fight between the men and Awindra, who managed to fight off the three. Then the fourth man began hitting him with a rusty iron bar that had previously been a hydraulic jack handle.
In the midst of all this, Jyoti screamed desperately and tried to call the police with her phone, but one of the men snatched it away. The men, including the driver’s assistant, began dragging them and savagely beating them with the bar. Awindra was hit on the head, arms, and legs until he finally fell to the ground semi-conscious. The aggressors dragged Jyoti to the back of the bus, where they also beat and bit her and proceeded to sexually assault her, taking this extreme perversity to an even higher level when they repeatedly inserted the rusty iron bar into her private parts for brief moments. Awindra regained consciousness and tried to fight the men again to defend the young woman, but once more he was savagely beaten. These monsters assaulted Jyoti so brutally that she was unrecognizable and abused her to the point that part of her intestines protruded from her body.
Not content with all this, the men threw Awindra and Jyoti out onto the street while the bus was moving, completely naked. To make matters worse, Awindra tried to ask for help from passersby, but no one stopped to help them. When the police finally arrived after two hours, they treated them with appalling disrespect. Awindra recounted that the officers who arrived didn’t rush to help them; in fact, he only heard them arguing amongst themselves about who should handle the case, that is, who would be in charge of the investigation. Furthermore, they seemed unwilling to approach him or Jyoti, who was semi-conscious and had asked for water and a drink because they didn’t want to get blood on their uniforms. The man also recounted how, instead of taking them to a private clinic, which was the closest, they were taken by ambulance to a public hospital where the service was slower and much farther away.
While all this was happening, Jyoti’s mother was waiting for her at home, very worried. Badri arrived around 10:30 at night after finishing his shift at the airport. His wife greeted him, very distressed because their daughter hadn’t returned from the movies. They tried to contact her but couldn’t until around 11:15 at night when they received a call from the Delhi hospital informing them that Jyoti had been in an accident. Badri called a friend to take him on his motorcycle and arrived at the hospital as quickly as possible. He remembers seeing his daughter for the first time, all bruised and battered, lying in the hospital bed. At that moment, she was conscious and able to say a few words, saying she was in a lot of pain, but she wouldn’t stop crying. At that moment, Badri didn’t know what had happened, but when a police officer approached him to explain, he was completely shocked to learn everything his daughter had suffered.
The family was devastated, but the doctors gave hope that she could survive her horrific injuries. Although they had to induce a coma, before Jyoti was put into it, the authorities were able to communicate with her through a few words and gestures. In her written statement, she was able to give her testimony and incredibly remembered the names of each of the individuals involved in the savage attack, as she had heard them mention each other. The young woman was able to recount what happened, which coincided with Awindra’s account, whom she described as a great friend who tried to save and protect her. Jyoti kept repeating to everyone that she didn’t want to die; she wanted to live and stay with her family, whom she loved.
More than anything, the young woman’s health was critical. She underwent a series of very complex surgeries where they had to remove part of her intestine. She had a feeding tube, and in general, her outlook was not good. She then had to be transferred to another hospital, Mount Elizabeth in Singapore, where they tried to save her, but unfortunately, on December 29, 2012, Jyoti Singh suffered septicemia with multiple organ failure, which ended her life. Previously, she had contracted pneumonia and other gastrointestinal infections, and she also suffered brain death. Basically, most of her organs collapsed due to internal and external injuries while Jyoti was dying in the hospital.
Hospital authorities initiated investigations based on the statements of both victims. Their case was also publicized in the media, where Jyoti was hailed as brave. In India, it is prohibited to disclose the identity of victims of sexual crimes unless the surviving victim or their family allows it, but it is usually kept private due to the stigma. Shortly after the story of this young woman, described as brave, and all the atrocities she endured, became public, thousands of women took to the streets to protest against rapists and demand justice from the authorities, calling for new laws to protect women and help reduce these types of crimes.
After Jyoti’s death, the protests intensified, and it was no longer just thousands of women in Delhi who protested; multiple demonstrations were organized throughout India, some of which resulted in clashes with the police. The atmosphere in the country became tense; for some, India had lost a daughter to a horrific act. New Year’s celebrations were scaled back because many venues decided to cancel them. The Jyoti case also damaged tourism in India, as women from other countries no longer felt safe. According to a survey conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, the number of women visiting India fell by at least 35% compared to the previous year. The situation was such that the UK Foreign Office advised British women not to travel alone to India for their safety.
Due to the media coverage of the case, Indian authorities were forced to resolve it effectively. Even before Jyoti’s death, they had already arrested several suspects. The first to be arrested was Ram Singh, the bus driver and alleged leader of the criminal gang. After his arrest, five more individuals were detained: Mukesh Singh, brother of Ram; Vinay Sharma; Akshay Thakur; Pawan Gupta; and a 17-year-old minor whose identity was supposed to be kept secret, but international media made it public. His name is Mohammad Afroz. Linked through DNA evidence and the testimonies of the victims after Jyoti’s death, some of the young woman’s relatives gave interviews to national and international media.
By January 9, 2013, Awindra gave an interview to the British newspaper The Times where he stated that he was deeply affected by what had happened and that he couldn’t sleep at night because he had many nightmares. After the events, Awindra decided to return to his parents’ house. The young man remembered Jyoti as a very special person in his life. They were completely different; while she was euphoric, he was quieter. While she liked to eat healthily because she was vegetarian and do yoga, he could barely do a few movements without losing his breath. They often talked via Skype video calls for several hours, and he remembers how she was crazy about high heels; it was something she loved. For Awindra, Jyoti was someone with whom he could talk about anything without getting bored.
Regarding their relationship, Awindra stated that they had a friendship and made it clear that he knew how important the caste system was in India, especially in his family, and that, regarding marriage, he would never do anything against it. Against her father’s wishes, Awindra emphasizes that they were friends because he belongs to one of India’s highest castes, as his father is also a lawyer.
In January 2013, authorities filed charges against the five rapists and murderers of Jyoti. Each was charged with rape, murder, kidnapping, destruction of evidence, and attempted murder of Awindra. The sixth suspect, Mohammad Afroz, was charged and tried as a minor, so he had a separate trial. In the initial interrogations, several of the accused confessed to the crime, but their lawyers later said they had been tortured and their confessions obtained under duress.
By January 10, 2013, Manohar Lal Sharma, one of the defense lawyers, said in an interview that Jyoti and Awindra were responsible for the attack because they shouldn’t have used public transportation and, as an unmarried couple, shouldn’t have been on the street that night. The lawyer continued, saying he had never seen a rape incident involving a respectable lady. Not even a loutish boss would want to touch a girl disrespectfully. He also said that Awindra was entirely responsible for the incident because he failed in his duty to protect her, and even claimed that the rape was planned by him for political gain.
These words, despite being extremely sexist and misogynistic, demonstrate the thinking of a large part of the Indian population. Usually, when a woman suffers sexual abuse, the justification is to say that she provoked it or to question how she was dressed, whether she was married, what she was doing out at night, among other things. And we know that this doesn’t only happen in India, which is why the culture of Jyoti’s heels is such an important detail, because many people judged and blamed her simply for wearing high heels that night. However, many people also felt outrage at the revictimization to which that young woman and the rest of her family were being subjected, which generated another wave of street protests.
The bus used to commit the crime belonged to a private transport company for which Ram worked, so he didn’t have permission to pick up public passengers, but that night Ram and Mukesh decided to take it out onto the street for fun. In his defense, Mukesh claimed that he was the one driving the bus, denying his participation in the rape. But according to the testimony of Jyoti and Awindra, Mukesh and Ram constantly took turns; while one drove, the other abused Jyoti.
The authorities revealed that the group of men had been drinking and eating together that afternoon before the crime, and that hours earlier they had robbed a carpenter named Ramadhar. The group used the same modus operandi: Mohammad lured him onto the bus, assuring him that it was taking a certain route. Once inside, they beat him, stole his cell phone and 15 rupees in cash. After robbing him of his belongings, they abandoned him on an overpass. Ramadhar saw some police officers near the place and approached to report the robbery, but the three officers he spoke to refused to take the complaint and ignored it because the crime scene was not in their jurisdiction. If these officers had taken Ramadhar’s complaint or alerted the different police forces about this suspicious bus, it is very likely that Jyoti’s murder could have been prevented.
By March 11, 2013, months before the trial, Ram Singh was found dead in his jail cell, and according to the official report, he had hanged himself from the ventilation duct. In July 2013, the other four defendants were tried in a fast-track court. The prosecution presented evidence, including witness statements, the victim’s statement, fingerprints, DNA evidence, and dental impressions, as Jyoti had 13 bite marks all over her body. By September 10, the four men were found guilty, and on September 13, they were sentenced to death. By August 31, 2013, Mohammad Afroz was found guilty of rape and murder, but thanks to the Juvenile Justice Act, the then 18-year-old received the maximum sentence of 3 years in a juvenile detention center, and the 8 months he had already spent in prison prior to the trial were reduced.
On March 4, 2015, a BBC documentary premiered addressing Jyoti’s case and recounting her story. To the surprise of many, one of those interviewed was Mukesh Singh, who gave the interview from prison. In his statement, Mukesh revictimized Jyoti, claiming that she was to blame for what happened. He said:
“A decent girl doesn’t wander the streets at 9 p.m. A girl is much more responsible for rape than a boy.”
Mukesh said that women should be at home doing housework, not going to nightclubs and bars at night doing inappropriate things or wearing unsuitable clothing. He also added that only 20% of girls are good and that a man is not equal to a woman. Not content with the number of outrageous things he said, Mukesh also asserted that Jyoti was at fault because when they abused her, she didn’t have to defend herself but simply remain silent and allow the abuse because that way they would have left her there raped without hitting her and would have only hit Awindra. Regarding his sentence, Mukesh stated that the death penalty would make things even more dangerous for women since now when they rape a girl they won’t abandon her like they did but will kill her.
On March 20, 2020, at 5:30 a.m., Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta, and Akshay Thakur were hanged for at least 30 minutes before being declared dead. This was the first execution of the death penalty in India since 2015 when the state executed Yakub Memon, who participated in the 1993 Mumbai terrorist attacks where 257 people died. Following this case, the Indian government passed several laws on sexual assault, including a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years for gang rape, and created six new courts. Fast-track procedures exclusively for rape cases exist, but despite all this effort, the truth is that things in India regarding sexual offenses haven’t changed much.
Recent reports show that there is over 80% impunity in rape cases. Rape culture is deeply ingrained in India and isn’t even frowned upon. India is a profoundly patriarchal and violent country against women, whose freedoms are increasingly violated. In 2014, two years after the gang rape and murder of Jyoti, the Ministry of Finance said that a small rape incident that was publicized worldwide was enough to cost the country’s tourism billions of dollars. And I repeat, he said it was a small incident. There we can see the magnitude of the problem in the country.
But Jyoti’s case was not a small incident. Jyoti was one of the 90 rape victims every day in the country, where a rape occurs every 18 minutes. And this isn’t the worst part, because the worst part is that in many of these cases, families are forced to save the dignity of their loved ones. Daughters, victims of rape, rapists: the most recent high-profile case occurred in early 2024 with a foreign couple, Fernanda and Vicente, a Spanish influencer couple who travel the world by motorcycle and share their adventures with their followers.
It turns out that on March 1, 2024, while they were camping in Dumka, seven men attacked them, beating and tying up Vicente, and then gang-raped Fernanda, taking turns. This is a very chilling case, similar to Jyoti’s, which confirms that it wasn’t a small, isolated incident, but rather a horrible culture that most of the time goes unpunished.
