The incident took place when Jyoti Singh, a 22-year-old physiotherapy intern, was beaten, gang-raped, and tortured in a private bus in which she was travelling with her male friend, Avnindra Pratap Pandey.

[17] As a result of the protests, in December 2012, a judicial committee was set up to study and take public suggestions for the best ways to amend laws to provide quicker investigation and prosecution of sex offenders.

[18] The victims, a 22-year-old woman, Jyoti Singh, and her male friend were returning home on the night of 16 December 2012 after watching the film Life of Pi at PVR Select City Walk, Saket.

A medical report later said that she suffered serious injuries to her abdomen, intestines and genitals due to the assault, and doctors said that the damage indicated that a blunt object (suspected to be the iron rod) may have been used for penetration.

"[31][32] Jyoti Singh graduated in physiotherapy from the Sai Institute of Paramedical & Allied Sciences in Dehradun, and had just applied for an intern's position at St Stephen's Hospital in Delhi.

[33][34][35][36][37] The male victim, Awindra Pratap Pandey, was a software engineer from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, who lives in Ber Sarai, New Delhi; he suffered broken limbs but survived.

[38][39] Delhi police registered a criminal case against the editor of a Delhi-based tabloid, Mail Today, for disclosing the female victim's identity, as such disclosure is an offence under section 228(A) of Indian Penal Code.

[40] Shashi Tharoor, then a union minister, suggested that if the parents had no objection, her identity could be made public, as a mark of respect for her courageous response, with the possibility of naming future laws after her.

[4] Although the charter bus which Ram Singh drove on weekdays was not permitted to pick up public passengers[26] or even to operate in Delhi because of its tinted windows,[68] they decided to take it out "to have some fun".

[103] On 31 August, he was convicted of rape and murder under the Juvenile Justice Act and given the maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment in a reform facility, inclusive of the eight months he spent in remand during the trial.

The plan was prepared and submitted by the management committee, headed by the officer of the District Child Protection Unit, and had recommended that "(Afroz) should lead a new life with a new identity provided by the appropriate government as applicable in his case if permissible to avoid any backlash or violent reaction".

[12][122] Judge Yogesh Khanna rejected pleas for a lesser sentence saying the case has "shocked the collective conscience of India" and that "courts cannot turn a blind eye to such crimes.

[173] On 24 December, police blocked roads leading to India Gate and Raisina Hill to prevent possible mass protests, and closed nine metro stations, affecting thousands of transit patrons.

[175] An article in First Post criticised the Indian government as well, saying that they failed to act positively or give credible assurances to the protesters and instead used police force, lathi-charging, pushing the media out of the scene, and shutting down metro rail stations.

[179] Hospital doctors and the post-mortem gave contradictory reports: he died due to cardiac arrest, but it is not known if the heart attack was caused by blunt-force injuries that he suffered to his chest and neck.

[184] After Jyoti Singh's death on 29 December 2012, protests were staged throughout India, including Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam.

[194] Chairperson of the then ruling United Progressive Alliance Sonia Gandhi visited the Safdarjang Hospital and met doctors on duty in the anesthesia and surgery departments for an update on the woman's health.

[198] She said that senior police officials should be held accountable for the failure to take adequate measures to stop such incidents and called for "immediate setting up of fast-track courts to try rape cases and to get justice in a time-bound manner".

[209] Following the gruesome crime, several celebrities like Preity Zinta, Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar and many more expressed outrages on social medial platforms like Twitter.

[212] The American embassy released a statement on 29 December 2012, offering their condolences to Nirbhaya's family and stated, "we also recommit ourselves to changing attitudes and ending all forms of gender-based violence, which plagues every country in the world".

[215] Two years later, in response to these comments and another incident of rape that took place in Uttar Pradesh where Yadav's party was governing, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said "We say no to the dismissive, destructive attitude of, 'Boys will be boys'"[216] and stated, "Violence against women must never be accepted, never excused, never tolerated.

[219] Author and activist Eve Ensler, who organised One Billion Rising, a global campaign to end violence against women and girls, said that the gang rape and murder was a turning point in India and around the world.

[222] In 2014, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley commented "one small incident of rape in Delhi' advertised world-over is enough to cost us billions of dollars in terms of lower tourism".

The Tamil Nadu chief minister also said that daily hearings would be conducted in all sexual abuse cases in the state for speedy trials at specially constituted fast-track courts, and women prosecutors would be appointed as government counsels.

As one scholar put it, she continued to be "raped" (literally and figuratively):[227] Singh faced a demeaning medical examination, a harsh cross-examination by the court, as well as "salacious media reports" and an insensitive response from society as a whole, including from people who knew her.

Suggestions in the report included the need to review the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) in conflict areas, and setting the maximum punishment for rape as death penalty rather than life imprisonment.

However, critics state that many key suggestions of the commission have been ignored, including the criminalisation of marital rape and trying military personnel accused of sexual offences under criminal law.

[238] On 22 December 2015, Rajya Sabha passed the revised Juvenile Justice Act, which proposed that the accused of heinous crimes who are above 16 years of age will be treated as an adult in the court of law.

Speaking with the victim's mother, former chief minister Sheila Dikshit said that Delhi's society and the various authorities will work together to build a permanent legacy to her daughter: "... whatever you will want in her memory, we will try to fulfil.

We are proud of our daughter.Indian-Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta's 2016 film Anatomy of Violence was also based on the incident, exploring the social conditions and lack of mental and sexual education in Indian society that made it possible.