Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde condoles death of gang-rape victim

NEW DELHI: Condoling the death of the gang-rape victim, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today pledged to strengthen laws to ensure that such incidents are not repeated.

He also said that the real tribute to the 23-year-old victim will be to ensure maximum punishment to the culprits.

In a message to the family, he said, "A real tribute to her will be to ensure maximum punishment to the culprits.

"I pledge to work to strengthen the laws and ensure that such an incident never gets repeated again," he said.

The girl, who was gang-raped and brutally assaulted by six men in a moving bus in south Delhi, died in a Singapore hospital early this morning after battling for life for the past 13 days.

"We tried our best to provide the best health care. Government is committed to seek deterrent punishment to the accused," Shinde said.

"Government is also committed to make necessary changes in law to make it more stringent so that such incidents do not occur in future," he said.

Minister of State for Home R P N Singh assured the family of the girl that the Government would work towards ensuring "harshest possible" punishment for her killers in the "quickest possible time".

"Government will work overtime to try and bring about laws and steps that ensure that no other citizen of the country has to go undergo the same kind of trauma," he told reporters here.