On December 16, 2012 five men and one minor attacked a 23-year old female student and her male companion. The perpetrators are charged with raping and assaulting the young woman on a bus in New Delhi, India, leaving her with such horrendous injuries that she passed on two weeks later. This awful occurrence sparked nation-wide controversy about the government’s inability to protect women from violence.

Though the events of the fateful night are difficult to delineate, police have reported that the accused admitted to torturing and raping the victim in order to teach her a lesson. The victim fought back and injured three of the assailants by biting them. The driver of the bus then threw her off the bus and attempted to run over the injured student, though she was pulled aside by her companion.

Thousands have demanded justice for the unnamed victim, unnamed due to accordance with Indian law. In India, the penalty for murder is capital punishment. Thousands of Indians have demanded that those responsible face this penalty, including the victim’s father. According to the victim’s father, “The whole country is demanding that these monsters be hanged. I am with them.”

Protesters dressed in black robes were seen outside the court calling for swift justice. Further north in the state of Kashmir, school girls marched with black ribbons over their mouths calling for harsh punishment for the accused. In the northeastern state of Assam, a village woman beat a politician and brought him to the police after he allegedly tried to rape a woman. Anti-rape protests have also broken out in the neighboring country of Nepal, according to Reuters.

The case will be processed by a new, fast-track chamber developed as a response to protests. Though the fast-track process is what protesters are calling for, some worry that it will yield an unconstitutional result. Hopefully the legislature will act diligently yet constitutionally and give the victim and her family justice, though respecting civil liberties and due process.