Delhi rape suspect in hospital after jail beating, poisoning, lawyer says

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Manan Vatsyayana / AFP - Getty Images

Indian private security guards man the entrance to the Lok Nayak hospital in New Delhi on May 15, 2013. A defendant on trial over a fatal gang-rape in New Delhi last December is critically ill after being attacked in prison, his lawyer said Wednesday, weeks after the main accused died in the same jail. By Satarupa Bhattacharjya, ReutersOne of the men on trial for the fatal gang rape of a student on a bus in  India has been beaten and poisoned by prison inmates and is unconscious  in the hospital, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

Prison authorities  denied any mistreatment of Vinay Sharma, who has been at New Delhi's  Tihar Jail since he was arrested on suspicion of attacking a woman in  December. The attack stunned India and brought thousands of protesters onto the  streets.

Follow @NBCNewsWorldOne of Sharma's co-accused, Ram Singh, the alleged  ringleader, was found hanged from a ceiling grill inside his cell in  March. Police described his death as suicide although a judicial inquiry  is pending.

Sharma's lawyer, A.P. Singh, accused inmates of  "beating him on the chest" and poisoning his food, and said he was  admitted to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital on Tuesday after being  treated at another city hospital since Sunday.

"Vinay was beaten  by four or five fellow inmates inside the jail premises," he told  Reuters, adding he was in an unconscious state.

Sunil Gupta, a spokesman for Tihar Jail, said Sharma was being treated in a city hospital for a fever.

"There was no such beating of Vinay to my knowledge. All the allegations are false," he said.

Police  arrested Sharma and Singh, along with three other adult men and a  teenage boy, on charges of raping the 23-year-old physiotherapy student  on a moving bus and fiercely beating her and her male friend on Dec.  16.

The woman died of her injuries in a Singapore hospital two  weeks after the assault, which enraged Indians, who protested in the  thousands for days to demand better law enforcement to fight gender  crimes.

The city court where Sharma has stood trial since early  this year asked jail authorities and doctors on Wednesday to file  reports on his health on Thursday.

Sharma was falsely implicated in the case, his lawyer said at the start of the trial.

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