NEW DELHI: Delhi gang-rape prime accused Ram Singh on Monday committed suicide by hanging himself in Tihar Jail.

The incident came to light around 5am. Ram Singh was found hanging inside jail number 3. He was rushed to the jail hospital but declared dead on arrival. The body was then sent for postmortem at Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) hospital.

Ram Singh hung himself using his clothes probably his own shirt, Tihar sources said.

"Singh was not alone in the cell. Other inmates were present and a guard was also posted. But nobody came to know about it. Around 5am, he was found hanging," a senior jail official said.

Ram Singh was to be produced in Saket court today. The gang-rape accused were woken up by 5-5.30am everyday and taken to Saket court on their hearing date in a bus and were kept in a lockup there. The incident came to fore when the guard spotted him this morning.

He was apparently disturbed by the recent hanging of Afzal Guru, a source said. A metropolitan magistrate will inquire into the incident, the source added.

However, the incident has raised several questions on the safety of inmates inside the high-security jail.

The manner in which the incident has unfolded has brought forward conspiracy theories. It was unlikely for the gang-rape accused to succeed in his suicide bid using his clothes and without any intervention.

Ram Singh, one of the six accused in the Delhi gang-rape case, was the driver of the bus in which the 23-year-old paramedical student was raped. The victim died in a Singapore hospital December 29.

Ram Singh was arrested along with his brother and four others, including a minor, hours after the crime. He and his co-accused have also faced fellow inmates' ire after being lodged into Tihar Central Jail.

Ram Singh's brother Mukesh has been informed about the incident.

Tihar Jail authorities had earlier said that all the five accused in the case were under 'suicide watch' as they had stopped talking and interacting amongst themselves.

Ram Singh's counsel had filed a petition in the Supreme Court asking the case to be shifted out side Delhi as his client is apprehensive about a fair trial.

"He knew he was going to die anyway because we had and still have such a strong case against him," the victim's 20-year-old brother said.

"I'm not very thrilled with the news that he killed himself because I wanted him to be hanged ... publicly. Him dying on his own terms seems unfair. But, oh well, one is down. Hopefully the rest will wait for their death sentence,"he added.

The trial of the five adult men began in a special fast-track court last month while the juvenile's trial began last week. Ram Singh's brother Mukesh Singh, gym assistant Vinay Sharma, bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Singh and fruit vendor Pawan Kumar are the other men on trial.

Police allege the six attacked the woman and her male companion on the bus as the couple returned home after watching a movie on December 16. The woman was repeatedly raped and tortured with a metal bar. The couple were also severely beaten before being thrown onto a road.

Singh was a bus driver, despite an accident in 2009 that fractured his right arm so badly that doctors had to insert a rod to support it. He appeared on a reality television show in a compensation dispute with a bus owner, who in turn accused Singh of "drunken, negligent and rash driving".

In the show, the moustachioed, slightly-built man was seen walking stiffly and holding his right arm at an awkward angle.

Singh's neighbours in the south Delhi slum where he lived described him as a heavy drinker with a temper. One young woman said he used to get embroiled in violent rows and a relative recalled a physical altercation with her husband.

(With inputs from Agencies)