NEW DELHI — A lawyer defending one of the six young men accused in a gang rape case that has gripped India claimed on Thursday that his client had been tortured by the police and that his confession had been coerced.

“Yesterday when I found him, he was unable to speak a single word,” the lawyer, Manohar Lal Sharma, said in a phone interview, referring to his client, Mukesh, who he said goes by only one name. “He was crying and he was murmuring, saying, ‘Help me out! I’m being tortured!’ ”

Rajan Bhagat, a spokesman for the New Delhi police, declined to comment on the torture accusations.

The police have accused the men of luring the rape victim, a 23-year-old college student, and her male friend onto a bus in New Delhi on Dec. 16, beating both of them, raping the woman and sexually assaulting her with an iron rod. She died of her injuries two weeks later. Charges against the adult men include rape, murder and attempted murder, and they could face the death penalty if convicted. They are being held in Tihar Jail, a notorious prison in the capital.

A sixth defendant, believed to be 17, is expected to be tried in a juvenile court, where the maximum sentence would be three years in a reform institution. The case against the five adults is expected to be transferred to a special fast-track court on Monday.