Top Delhi gangrape accused Ram Singh dodges 'suicide watch'

Prime Delhi gangrape accused Ram Singh managed to dodge all eyes on him – the guard posted to keep a "suicide watch" on him and inmates in the high-security cell in Tihar Jail here – to end his life using the very clothes he was wearing.

The suicide of 33-year-old Ram Singh, the prime accused in the December 16 Delhi gangrape case, has raised questions about the role of authorities who were keeping a watch on him.

Singh was not alone in the cell in Jail Number three of the prisons when he used his clothes to hang himself from the grill early this morning, Jail sources said.

A guard was posted outside his cell to keep a watch on him but could not detect the happenings inside the cell. Other inmates, who were sleeping, also did not know that Singh was hanging himself, they said.

Sources said a Metropolitan Magistrate will inquire into the incident.

Singh and other four accused in the case were also under suicide watch – an alert that the inmates could take extreme step – since January after they stopped interacting with other inmates.

Mamata Sharma, National Women's Commission Chairperson, raised questions about the functioning of Tihar Jail, saying it was "shocking" that the administration could not protect the undertrial and demanded an inquiry. "The question mark is on Tihar," she said.

Kiran Bedi, former Tihar Director General, said said only an inquiry will tell under what special watch was he and what happened to that watch. "How did this man give this watch a slip? I think we need to wait for the inquiry," she said.

"Where a prison inmate loses hope and knows he has no chance of getting away he does look for opportunities to take his own life inside jail. The inquiry ordered will reveal what kind of e-watch or h-watch (human watch) he was under," she said.

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