The 34-year-old woman was found unconscious inside an open mini bus in the suburban neighborhood of Sakinaka, Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale said at a news conference on Saturday.
According to the CNN News-18 affiliate, which cited a local official, she was raped and assaulted with an iron rod. The woman was admitted to Rajawadi Hospital and initially responded to treatment, but died of injuries on Saturday, Nagrale said.
Police arrested a man on suspicion of rape and murder, after allegedly identifying him from closed-circuit television footage, Nagrale added. He has not yet been formally charged and will remain in police custody until Sept. 21.
Balwant Deshmukh, a senior police inspector at the Sakinaka police station, told CNN that the victim and the alleged perpetrator were both homeless. If he is charged and found guilty, the suspect could face the death penalty.
Nirbhaya, a pseudonym given to the victim, meaning “fearless,” was raped and assaulted with iron rods, according to court documents, and suffered horrific injuries. He died two weeks after the attack on a Singapore hospital.
Her death highlighted sexual assaults in India and increased control of crimes against women. The case marked a turning point in the country and galvanized millions of women to protest tougher laws on sexual assault.
“After Nirbhaya, we thought things would change, but we still hear cases of (rape) every day. Not a single day goes by that we don’t know about any of them,” Bhayana said. “As activists, we push and poll both the government and the nation, but when we hear about real brutality, we feel so powerless. I have no words to describe it.”
Uddhav Thackeray, the chief minister of Maharashtra, of which Bombay is the capital, expressed his shock at the “terrible” incident.
The rape crisis in India
The number of reported violations has increased since Nirbhaya’s death, potentially due to increased awareness around the issue. Experts say the outrage has helped lift the embarrassment over the rape discussion.
Legal reforms and more severe sanctions for rape were subsequently introduced. These include fast-track courts to move rape cases quickly to the judicial system, a modified definition of rape to include anal and oral penetration, and the introduction of new guidelines to end the two-finger test, which allegedly assessed whether the woman had sex.
Bhayana, the activist, urged the nation to work together to ensure the protection of Indian women.
“As a nation, we need to think about where we are now,” he said. “It’s been almost ten years since Nirbhaya, but things are still the same. We have to work collectively, otherwise nothing will change.