NEW DELHI: Five men charged with the brutal gang-rape and murder of a student in New Delhi were set to appear in court on Monday for the first time amid a heavy police presence and calls for them to be hanged.

The five, who could face the death penalty if convicted, are charged with kidnap, robbery and conspiracy over the attack on December 16 that sparked mass protests in India and soul-searching about levels of violence against women.

Rowdy protests by some lawyers, who were denouncing other advocates who have stepped forward to defend the accused, delayed the start of proceedings in the packed court room and police were called in to restore order.

Late morning, several blue Delhi Police buses escorted by two police cars were seen driving into the Saket court complex in south New Delhi after jail authorities confirmed that the suspects had been sent for their hearing.

The defendants have been named as Ram Singh, Mukesh Singh, Vijay Shar-ma, Akshay Thakur and Pawan Gupta.

A sixth accused, who is 17, is to be tried in a separate court for juveniles.

It normally takes months for the prosecution to assemble such a case, but the legal proceedings are getting under way barely a week after the 23-year-old medical student died of her injuries in a Singapore hospital.

The government, sensitive to criticism that a sluggish justice system often compounds the agony of victims, has pledged to fast-track the case against the defendants who are aged between 17 and 35. They all live in Delhi.

Police have pledged “maximum security” during the hearing at the court amid fears for the defendants’ safety. A man was arrested last week as he allegedly tried to plant a crude bomb near the home of one of the men.

Legal experts said that the magistrate Namrita Aggarwal will likely transfer the case to a higher court during the hearing.

“The court will ask them if they have lawyers and then it will appoint an Amicus Curiae [lawyer] to represent them and supply copies of the charge sheet to the accused,” said Vishwender Verma, a senior advocate at Delhi High Court.

“The case will then be committed to a sessions court as a magistrates’ court cannot try rape and murder cases.”

The student, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had spent the evening at a cinema with her boyfriend on the night of the attack. After failing to flag down an autorickshaw, they were lured onto a schoolbus they thought would take them home.

Instead, a gang are alleged to have taken it in turns to rape the young woman as well as sexually assault her with an iron bar that they also used to attack her companion. The pair were then thrown out of the moving vehicle.

Outlining their case before the same court in Saket on Saturday, prosecutors said that there was DNA evidence to tie the defendants to the crime scene.