Indian medical body questions gov't motive to shift rape victim to Singapore

Indians light candles to mourn the death of the 23-year-old gang rape victim and demonstrate against the rapists during a protest in Calcutta, India, Dec. 29, 2012.Xinhua News Agency.

India's nodal medical body, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), has reportedly questioned the government's motive behind its decision to shift the 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape victim to a hospital in Singapore Thursday, where she died in the wee hours of Saturday.

The victim, who was cremated Sunday morning after her body was flown back from Singapore's Mount Elizabeth hospital where she was shifted from state-run Safdarjung Hospital in the Indian capital, after she underwent at least three operations.

"Indian hospitals have infrastructure at par with their counterparts in other countries. India is emerging as a major centre of medical tourism and obviously the shifting of the girl raises the question whether our hospitals lack the necessary facilities? Indian doctors are equally competent to handle such cases," K Vijayakumar, the President of the IMA, was quoted by local media as saying.

The IMA has cast doubts over the "exact reason" to shift the critical patient to Singapore on an air ambulance, asking whether the decision was "purely for medical purposes or there were other factors."

"Is it safe or of any advantage to transfer patient in this condition? Do our hospitals lack infrastructure or our doctors incompetent to handle such patients or this particular decision was taken for other reasons?" the IMA chief asked.

The Delhi University student was gang-raped on Dec. 16 by six men on a moving bus and subsequently beaten up, along with boyfriend, before being thrown off the vehicle near a flyover in the south of the Indian capital. The duo had boarded the bus after watching a movie at a multiplex.

All the six accused have been arrested and are currently in judicial custody awaiting trial due to start later this week. The authorities have slapped murder charges against the six, apart from rape and other charges, which carry a maximum of death penalty.

The case evoked massive public outcry across the country and clashes in the national capital, compelling the government to set up a judicial inquiry commission to probe into the lapses, if any, on part of authorities and "fix responsibility".