New Delhi, Dec. 30 (ANI): The body of the 23-year-old gang raped woman who died at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital early on Saturday after battling for survival for 13 days, was cremated here early on Sunday morning in the presence of her family, some government dignitaries and officials.
The cremation took place within hours of the body being brought from Singapore in a special aircraft of Air India.
On landing at the Indira Gandhi International Airport at 3.30 a.m. on Sunday, the plane was taken to its technical area where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi were present to receive the body. Both Singh and Gandhi spoke to the family members and consoled them.
The body was then taken to the girl's Mahavir Enclave residence where religious rituals were performed before taking it to the crematorium at Dwarka Sector 24 amid heavy deployment of Delhi Police and RAF personnel.
The cremation took place under a dense cover of fog.
Minister of State for Home R.P.N. Singh, West Delhi MP Mahabal Mishra, Delhi BJP chief Vijender Gupta were also present at the cremation. The media was not allowed inside the crematorium.
The woman, a physiotherapy student, was gang raped and brutally assaulted allegedly by six men in a moving bus in south Delhi on December 16 night. While undergoing treatment at Safdarjung hospital, she was shifted to the Singapore hospital for further treatment.
Earlier, the Air India special flight carrying the body of the 23-year-old gang rape victim, took off from Singapore's Changi Airport for India at about 12.30 a.m. local time on Sunday. On board the plane, chartered by the Indian government to take the paramedical student home to be cremated, were the victim's parents and two brothers, the Strait Times reported.
Indian High Commissioner to Singapore, Dr T.C.A Raghavan said soon after her death that: "The effort was to give the best possible medical attention and medical treatment and our role in the High Commission was to facilitate that particular medical decision which was that she would get very good treatment in Mount Elizabeth Hospital."
He said that the doctors in Singapore tried their very best. "The team of doctors which had accompanied her from India had fully briefed the doctors here about the injuries suffered, treatment she had undergone, so I would say she received the best possible medical attention in both countries," he said. The body was bought the Changi Airport cargo area in a hearse.
It was accompanied by car from the Indian High Commission. (ANI with inputs)