The Associated Press is reporting that police officials say that the main suspect in the gang rape and fatal beating of a woman on a New Delhi bus committed suicide in jail on Monday.

"Ram Singh, who is accused of driving the bus on which a 23-year-old student was raped and fatally assaulted by a group of six men in December, hung himself with his own clothes, said G. Sudhakar, the top police official at Tihar jail.

Singh, along with four other men on trial with him on rape, murder and abduction charges, had been under a suicide watch, another jail official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. He said the five were being held in separate cells in separate buildings at the jail."

The remaining suspects could face the death penalty if convicted. A sixth accused is being jailed and on trial separately because he is a juvenile.

The brutal Dec. 16 attack, in which the woman and her male friend were attacked after boarding the bus, sparked nationwide protests and turned the world's attention to India's treatment of women and its laws to protect them.

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Source: NPR