Ram Singh and Mukesh, Delhi Gang Rape Accused, Remembered With Fear

Courtesy of Betwa Sharma The entrance to Ram Singh and Mukesh’s house in Ravidas slum in south Delhi.

NEW DELHI â€"Ram Singh and Mukesh, the two brothers accused in the Delhi gang rape case, were likened by a neighbor to Gabbar Singh from the Bollywood classic “Sholay.” A particularly cold-hearted Bollywood villain, the character stirred so much fear in viewers that mothers in India sometimes told their children “to stop crying and go to sleep or Gabbar Singh will come.”

“Those two were a real bad lot,” said the neighbor, a woman from the south Delhi slum of Ravidas, which was home to four of the six arrested in the gang rape of a 23-year-oldstudent on Dec. 16. “They were always drinking, abusing and getting into fights,” she added, asking that her name not be used so she could avoid any further media attention.

Several other women in the camp shared similar memories of the two men, who were charged with murder, along with three other men and a juvenile, after the student succumbed to her injuries on Dec. 29. Ram Singh, 32, and Mukesh, who goes by one name and is described by relatives to be in his mid-20s, worked as drivers. They have pleaded not guilty.

The only person who remembered Ram Singh fondly is another brother, who was not involved in the gang rape and also lives in Delhi. Speaking on the phone from Gwalior, where he was traveling for work, he described his oldest brother, Ram, as a devoted husband and loving father.

“He took his responsibilitie! s as the eldest son seriously,” said the 27-year-old brother, who declined to give his name to avoid media attention. “Mukesh was the one who was always out to have a good time with his friends,” he added.

The brother said that Ram Singh had longed for a child but his wife was unwell, so the brother gave his second child to the couple after his birth in 2007. “Would I have done this if I didn’t trust him completely” he said. “I send my child to a government school, but he opted for a private school because he wanted to make something out of his son.”

Mr. Singh turned to alcohol after his wife died in 2008, the brother said: “He was really depressed and started drinking two or three times a week.”

The brother recalled that on the day of the gang rape, Mr. Singh came to spend that Sunday with his son, but he left the house at 4 p.m. after getting a call from the minor accused in the case.

“He was very happy and planned to stay the whole day at my place,” the broher said. “If I had faintest idea, I would have never let him go.”

The brother, also a driver, has pulled Mr. Singh’s son out of the private school because he can’t afford the expenditure. “The bus fare alone for a month is 800 rupees ($15),” he said.

The brother said that their mother and father had retired to their village in Rajasthan and did not intend to come back to Delhi, where they had lived for 25 years.

“They are completely devastated. My mother is not being able to eat,” he said. “We no longer want to be associated with those two.”

Now, the door to Ram Singh’s house in Ravidas camp is closed. Neighbors described their family as arrogant because the sons earned a good income as drivers. In the slum, most people work as laborers.

Mr. Singh also had an infamous reputation in the slum after he ran away with an older married woman who left her three children for him. (This is the same woman whom Mr. Singh later married.)

“I’ve seen R! am Singh ! and her come out of the house with her dressed only in a petticoat,” said a neighbor, who was vigorously scrubbing utensils, last week.

“They were both shameless,” she added, bitingly.

Mr. Singh’s house is next door to the man whose wife eloped with him. “She left us for him,” said the 17-year-old daughter of Mr. Singh’s wife from her first marriage. “I hate them both,” said the daughter, who declined to give her name.

V.K. Anand, Mr. Singh’s lawyer, strongly objected to the picture his relatives and neighbors had painted of his client. “He was a driver and all drivers sometimes drink, and if someone is not educated he is considered unreliable,” he said.

Manmohar Lal Sharma, Mr. Mukesh’s lawyer, accused relatives and friends of lying about his client. “All these people are being manipulated by the police,” he said. “This is a simple case of shaming and defaming him in the media.”

Neighbors also observed that Mr. Singh was usually the leader andhis brother Mukesh followed him since their youth. Residents of the slum described how Mukesh would often bring his employer’s car to the Ravidas camp. The brothers would play loud music and race down the roads near the slum.

Courtesy of Betwa Sharma Asha, a relative of Ram Singh and Mukesh Kumar.

“They loved each other very much,” said Asha, a relative living next door, who declined to give her full name.

“If one brother would give someone five punches, then the other would give six to show solidarity,” she said while smoking a beedi and keeping one eye on the news last week.

Suddenly, she raised the television volume to hear a news report about how the eld! est Mr. S! ingh was being attacked by other inmates inside Tihar Jail, where he is imprisoned. “Serves him right,” she said.

Several residents blamed Mr. Singh and his brother for involving Vinay Sharma and Pawan Kumar, the two other suspects from the slum, but Amravati, a 40 year-old shopkeeper who goes by one name, said Mr. Sharma had already been in trouble before.

“The brothers were bad, but Vinay got into a brawl with my husband and hit him on the head and vandalized our shop. He even hit my young daughter,” she said. “This happened on Dec. 2, and we were going lodge a complaint against him, but then the rape happened.”

Ravidas dwellers also described how their own lives had been endangered when a man armed with two bombs came to blow up Ram Singh’s house on Dec. 31.

“I grabbed him and pulled him out with the bombs in hs hands,” said Kamla, a 45-year-old resident who goes by one name, whom neighbors credit for saving them. “It’s tragic this girl died, but why should anyone kill so many of our girls” she added.

Business, too, has been disrupted because of the bad name associated with the slum. Residents said children are scared of going to school because people know they come from the Ravidas camp.

“It is a difficult time right now, but at least the four worms are no longer living among us,” said Ms. Amravati.