The unidentified 23-year-old, the focus of nationwide protests since she was attacked on a bus in New Delhi two weeks ago, was cremated at a ceremony kept secret by authorities only hours after her body was repatriated from Singapore.[break]
The funeral pyre was lit after traumatised relatives and friends said their final prayers at a ceremony in southwestern Delhi, according to mourners who revealed she had been due to wed a boyfriend who was injured in the same attack.
Indian protestors hold a placard during a rally in New Delhi on December 30, 2012, following the cremation of a gangrape victim in the Indian capital. (AFP)
"They had made all the wedding preparations and had planned a wedding party in Delhi" for February, said Meena Rai, who was a close friend and neighbour. "I really loved this girl. She was the brightest of all."
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the main ruling Congress party, were at Delhi airport to console her parents as they arrived home on a chartered plane with their daughter´s body at around 4:00 am (2230 GMT).
After initial treatment in a Delhi hospital following the attack, she was flown to Singapore on Wednesday night where doctors were unable to prevent a multiple organ failure. She was pronounced dead in the early hours of Saturday.
Her killing has prompted government promises of better protection for women, and deep soul-searching in a nation where horrifying gang-rapes are commonplace and sexual harassment is routinely dismissed as "Eve-teasing".
Several thousand people massed again on Sunday in the centre of the Indian capital -- some to express sympathy for the victim who had been out to watch a film with her boyfriend, others to voice anger at the government.
Stringent security measures that have seen government offices and other public areas sealed off in New Delhi to prevent protests have been seized on by critics as further evidence of an out-of-touch government bungling its response.
"We cannot understand the high-handedness of the police. This is our city, we should be free to move around and protest peacefully," 21-year-old protester Mahima Anand, who works for a multi-national company, told AFP.
Indian protestors hold placards during a rally in New Delhi on December 30, 2012, following the cremation of a gangrape victim in the Indian capital. (AFP)
"She was not just one woman, she epitomises every Indian woman who has been wronged in some way or the other," she added from the Jantar Mantar area of Delhi, where protesters have been allowed to gather.
About a dozen protesters tried to break the barricades that riot police had set up around the area, while a handful also threw stones and were immediately detained.
Waves of protests have erupted across India since the attack on the night of December 16 when the woman was not only repeatedly raped but also sexually assaulted with an iron bar, leaving her with terrible intestinal injuries.
Thousands took part in late-night candlelit vigils on Saturday after 80-year-old Singh, criticised for reacting slowly to the crime, led appeals for calm to prevent a repeat of the sometimes violent protests.
As police said the six accused of murdering the unnamed woman could face the death penalty, there was a widespread determination that the killing would serve as a tipping point for how the nation deals with violence against women.
"We are aware that this is not the first case, nor will it be the last case of gang-rape in India, but it is clear that we will not tolerate sex crimes any more," said Bela Rana, a lawyer who joined a rally in central Delhi.
The city has been dubbed the "rape capital" of India. A report in Sunday´s Hindustan Times said more than 20 women had been raped there since December 16.
The Press Trust of India news agency reported on Sunday that another woman had been allegedly gang-raped and murdered in the state of West Bengal.
According to police and prosecutors, the ordeal suffered by the victim of the Delhi crime began when six men lured her and her male companion onto a bus that they thought would take them home.
Instead a group of joyriders, who had been drinking heavily, launched a savage attack lasting some 40 minutes that only ended when the victims were thrown off the bus.
The Times of India said in an editorial on Sunday that two key questions must be addressed in the aftermath of the tragedy.
"What exactly will the government do now to make the country a safer and better place for all women? And what will all of us do to tackle deeply entrenched prejudice and misogyny in our society?"
Proposals include a public register for sex offenders or forcing convicted rapists to undergo chemical castration -- the use of drugs to suppress sexual urges.
The government has already promised to bring in tougher sentences for the most extreme sex crimes and speed up a notoriously slow justice system that often fails to deliver timely verdicts.
Ban deeply saddened by Indian rape victim death
UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed Sunday deep sorrow at the death of the 23-year old Delhi student who was gang-raped by six men in a moving bus in New Delhi.
A UN spokesperson said Ban had offered his sincerest condolences to her parents, family and friends, and utterly condemned this brutal crime.
"Violence against women must never be accepted, never excused, never tolerated," the spokesperson said. "Every girl and woman has the right to be respected, valued and protected."
The unidentified 23-year-old victim of the rape, which occurred on December 16 and triggered an outpouring of grief and outrage across India, was cremated at a private ceremony on Sunday.
The UN secretary general urged the government of India to undertake reforms in order to deter such crimes in the future and bring their perpetrators to justice as well as strengthen support for rape victims.
"UN Women and other parts of the United Nations stand ready to support such reform efforts with technical expertise and other support as required," the spokesperson said.
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