NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Five Indian men were formally charged in court on Thursday with the gang rape and murder of a physiotherapy student in a case that has generated widespread anger about the government's inability to prevent violence against women. 
 
 The December 16 attack on the 23-year-old student and a male companion provoked furious protests close to the seat of government in New Delhi and has fuelled a nationwide debate about the prevalence of sexual crime in India, where a rape is reported on average every 20 minutes. 
 
 The woman died of her injuries in hospital in Singapore, where she had been taken for treatment, on Saturday. 
 
 The five are accused of assaulting the woman on a bus in New Delhi, leaving her with such severe injuries that she died two weeks later. They were not present in court. 
 
 A sixth accused is under 18 and is due to be tried separately in a juvenile court. 
 
 A public prosecutor read out charges including murder, gang rape and criminal conspiracy. The court will examine the charges on Saturday, duty magistrate Surya Malik Grover said. 
 
 Murder carries the death penalty in India. 
 
 The father of the woman said earlier he backed the chorus of calls for those responsible to be executed. 
 
 "The whole country is demanding that these monsters be hanged. I am with them," the father told reporters in his home village of Mandwara Kalan in Uttar Pradesh state. The woman was born in the village but the family later moved to New Delhi. 
 
 She has not been identified and nor have members of her family, in accordance with Indian law. 
 
 In a sign of the depth of feeling surrounding the case, the bar association at the court said none of its members was willing to represent the accused. The court is expected to assign a defense lawyer for the men. 
 
 Advocates dressed in black robes protesting outside the court called for fast justice. In the northern state of Kashmir, school girls marched with black ribbons over their mouths and demanded harsh punishment for the accused. 
 
 The case is due to be processed by a new, fast-track chamber set up in response to the crime. 
 
 While the fast-track procedure has broad support, many lawyers worry new that legislation written in haste could be unconstitutional and oppose introducing the death penalty for rape. 
 
 "A swift trial should not be at the cost of a fair trial," Chief Justice Altamas Kabir said on Wednesday. 
 
 ANGER 
 
 Police have said the accused have admitted to torturing and raping the student "to teach her a lesson". She fought back and bit three of them, a police source told Reuters, and the bite marks are part of the evidence against them. 
 
 After throwing her from the private bus, the driver tried to run the victim over but she was pulled away by her companion, a senior police official told Reuters. 
 
 Police have prepared a dossier of evidence and charges against the accused, which is believed to run to 1,000 pages, including testimony from the woman's friend who survived the hour-long attack and a man who said he was robbed by the same gang prior to the rape. 
 
 Days of protests in New Delhi and other cities followed the attack. Many of the protesters have been students, infuriated by what they see as the failure of the government to protect women. 
 
 In the northeastern state of Assam on Wednesday, village women beat a politician and handed him to police for what they said was the attempted rape of a woman, police said. Anti-rape protests have also broken out in neighboring Nepal. 
 
 The government has set up two panels headed by retired judges to recommend measures to ensure women's safety. One of the panels, due to make recommendations this month, has received some 17,000 suggestions from the public, media reported. 
 
 India's chief justice inaugurated the first fast-track court for sexual offences on Wednesday - a long standing demand of activists to clear a court backlog. 
 
 A review of India's penal code, which dates back to 1860, was presented to parliament last month, before the attack, and widens the definition of rape, another demand of activists. 
 
 That bill is now likely to be revised further, with chemical castration and the death penalty in rape cases among proposals under consideration. 
 
 "We want the laws to be amended in such a stringent way that before a person even thinks of touching a girl, he should feel chills down his spine," said lawyer Suman Lata Katiyal, protesting at the south Delhi courthouse. 
 
 Hanging is only allowed in the "rarest of rare" cases according to a 1983 Supreme Court ruling. It was used for the first time in eight years in November when the lone surviving gunman from a 2008 militant attack on Mumbai, Mohammad Ajmal Kasab from Pakistan, was executed. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Diksha Madhok, Annie Banerji and Satarupa Bhatgtacharjya in NEW DELHI; and Gopal Sharma in KATHMANDU; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Robert Birsel) ||||| Delhi gang-rape suspects charged in court 
 
 NEW DELHI — Police formally charged five men Thursday with the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student, a crime which appalled India and led to national soul-searching about the treatment of women. 
 
 Police filed a string of charges including murder, rape and kidnapping against the suspects, listing evidence in a confidential 1,000-page document submitted to a district court in the south of the capital New Delhi. 
 
 The five aged between 35 and 19, who would face the death penalty if convicted, had been expected in court but were not present when the media were allowed in to listen to part of the proceedings. 
 
 "We have filed the charge sheet against the five accused," an investigating police officer told a woman district magistrate. She is expected to transfer the case to a fast-track trial court when the next hearing is held on Saturday. 
 
 The medical student from north India was repeatedly raped and violated with an iron bar on a moving bus in the capital on December 16 as she returned from a cinema with her boyfriend. 
 
 Protesters have massed in Indian cities daily since the assault to demand the government and police take sex crimes more seriously, with tougher penalties for offenders and even chemical castration among measures being considered. 
 
 The latest incident, though far from rare in a country where gang rapes are commonplace, has led to an outpouring of criticism and deep self-reflection in the media and the political class about crimes against women in India. 
 
 A statement from the Delhi victim, who died at the weekend from her injuries, and an account from her boyfriend, who was badly beaten during the attack, are expected to form crucial parts of the evidence against the five. 
 
 A sixth suspect who is believed to be a minor aged 17 was not charged in the court at Saket on Thursday. Detectives are awaiting the results of a bone test to verify his age and determine whether he can be tried in an adult court. 
 
 The trial of the men, who were allegedly drunk when they took the private bus out for a joyride, is to be held in a special fast-tracked court aimed at avoiding the delays typical of India's dysfunctional justice system. 
 
 Amid public clamour for the guilty to be executed, Altamas Kabir, the country's chief justice, has cautioned against letting anger overwhelm the due process of the law. 
 
 "Let us not get carried away. A swift trial should not be at the cost of a fair trial," Kabir was quoted as saying in the local media on Thursday. 
 
 Lawyers at the district court in New Delhi have refused to defend the suspects, meaning the government will have to appoint advocates for them. 
 
 Several hundred protesters including female lawyers gathered outside the court on Thursday demanding greater protection for women and a better justice system. 
 
 "Why is there such a low conviction rate in India? Please judges, wake up!" read one banner. 
 
 Just 26 percent of the 24,206 cases of rape registered in 2011 in India resulted in a conviction, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. 
 
 Analysis of the Delhi gang-rape has focused on India's deeply patriarchal society, in which misogyny and sexism run deep and women are often treated as second-class citizens. 
 
 Amid a wide-ranging national debate seeking to identify the reasons for the horrifying violence, women's rights groups have highlighted the difficulty rape victims face in securing convictions and dealing with social stigma. 
 
 "Every 25 minutes there is a rape case in India, but only one out of ten cases gets reported," activist Ranjani Kumari told AFP. "How long should people have to wait for the system to respond?" 
 
 On December 28, it emerged that a 17-year-old girl had committed suicide after police allegedly tried to persuade her to drop a complaint of gang-rape and instead either accept a cash settlement or even marry one of her attackers. 
 
 Campaigners hope the December 16 attack will serve as a turning point, changing social attitudes and leading to greater sensitivity by the police. 
 
 A member of the ruling Congress party was detained in the northeastern state of Assam on Thursday after being accused of raping a girl in a remote village, police said. 
 
 In scenes played out on national television, village women were seen stripping the lawmaker, Bikram Singh Brahma, and repeatedly slapping him. 
 
 The government has set up three separate commissions to look into the New Delhi gang-rape and suggest changes in the law, with one minister suggesting new anti-rape legislation should be named after the unidentified victim. 
 
 The brother of the victim, speaking from the family's home village in Uttar Pradesh state, said they would not object to a law named after her. 
 
 A recent poll found India to be the worst in the G20 group of nations for women because of child marriage, abuse and female foeticide. 
 
 Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More » ||||| This story was inadvertently republished and now gives an incorrect datestamp of 5 February 2013. In fact the story refers to events on 21 January 2013. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Watch the BBC's Sanjoy Majumder report from outside the court in Delhi 
 
 The trial of five men over the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman has begun at a specially convened fast-track court in India's capital, Delhi. 
 
 If convicted, the men could face the death penalty. A sixth suspect, who is thought to be 17, is expected to be tried by a juvenile court. 
 
 The case has shocked India and sparked a debate about the treatment of women. 
 
 On Sunday, the victim's mother condemned public figures who implied her daughter had brought it on herself. 
 
 In an interview with the BBC, she said those who criticised Indian women for adopting Western dress and lifestyles were "sexist and irresponsible" and were in effect condoning rape. 
 
 The physiotherapy student, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and a male friend were attacked on a bus in south Delhi on 16 December. 
 
 Police said the assailants beat both of them, and then raped the woman. She suffered massive internal injuries and died nearly two weeks later. 
 
 The woman's home in a narrow alley doesn't have a proper roof, so the place was damp and water-logged after recent rain 
 
 'Forensic evidence' 
 
 The start of the trial at the Saket court complex in Delhi was delayed for more than an hour as defence lawyers argued that it should be open to the media. The judge rejected their request and said it should be held behind closed doors. 
 
 After receiving the charge sheet, the judge adjourned the trial until 24 January, when opening arguments will be heard. 
 
 The defendants have been named as Ram Singh and his brother Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur. The sixth suspect claims to be a juvenile and his case is being handled separately. 
 
 Lawyers for two of the suspects have said they will plead not guilty. It is unclear how the other three accused will plead. 
 
 Prosecutors say they have extensive forensic evidence linking all six men to the crime. It is supported by the suspects' mobile-phone records and the testimony of the dying woman and her friend, they add. 
 
 India's fast-track courts Some 1,200 fast-track courts were operating in India as of March 2012 
 
 In Delhi, six fast-track courts were ordered for the trial of cases related to crimes against women, especially rape. Some other states such as Punjab and Maharashtra are also setting up fast-track courts for this purpose 
 
 In 2000, central government started a scheme for more than 1,700 fast-track courts to try to clear the backlog of cases clogging up the Indian judicial system, partly related to a shortage of judges 
 
 Funding is an issue because the central government said it could no longer fund them after March 2011, leaving future funding decisions to individual states Do 'fast track' courts work? 
 
 However, defence lawyers told the Reuters news agency that they were preparing to argue that the forensic evidence had been fabricated. 
 
 They also said the trial was unsafe because police had rushed the investigation into the crime as a result of the public outrage. 
 
 Two of the four defence lawyers had said their clients were beaten in custody and forced to make confessions which were suspiciously similar. Officials have declined to comment, citing legal restrictions. 
 
 The defence is also expected to argue that the men were denied legal aid for several weeks. The lawyer for Ram Singh, VK Anand, said he would ask to move the trial out of the capital because of the media attention. 
 
 "We are sure we will not get justice in Delhi," he added. 
 
 'Quick justice' 
 
 The brutal assault on the 23-year-old student has led to nationwide protests against the treatment of women in India. 
 
 Campaigners have called for tougher rape laws and reforms to the police have been accused of too often failing to file charges against attackers. 
 
 The government has promised to fast-track future rape cases. Legal proceedings in India sometimes involve years of delays. 
 
 As well as the one sitting at Saket, five other fast-track courts are being set up in Delhi to allow crimes against women to be dealt with swiftly. There are believed to be about 95,000 rape cases pending nationwide, according to Ranjana Kumari, a women's activist and director of the Centre for Social Research. 
 
 "'We need a system in which women can get justice quickly. Otherwise, in the normal course of things, it can take 10 or 12 or 14 years for cases to be taken up by the court. That is tantamount to denying justice to the victim," she told the Associated Press. 
 
 The government has also said that it will bring in stronger sexual assault laws and has established several committees to recommend changes.
– As expected, murder charges were filed today against five men accused of brutally gang-raping a woman on a New Delhi bus. The sixth suspect, a teenager, will see his case handled separately. The men were also charged with rape and other crimes, a list expected to include kidnapping, robbery, and assault, the New York Times reports. The combination could result in the death penalty, which is rare in India. Also rare in India: The trial will be fast-tracked. (Click for more details that have leaked from the filing.) The father of the victim, who was a 23-year-old physiotherapy student, wants the men responsible—including the teen—to be hanged, Reuters reports. He also wants new sex crimes legislation named after his daughter, who has not been identified in accordance with Indian law. The BBC has a profile of her: She dreamed of building a hospital in her ancestral village to help people in the severely undeveloped region; she had wanted to become a doctor since childhood and saw education as the way to improve her family's situation; she studied at all hours. "She was brave, had no fear, and was full of life," says her father.