The case against five adults accused of gang-raping and murdering a student in New Delhi was moved on Thursday for trial in a fast-track court, a lawyer for one of the defendants said.

"The magistrate has committed the case to the sessions court which is fast-track," Sadashiv Gupta, the lawyer for fruit-seller Pawan Kumar, told reporters outside a district court in south Delhi. The court would hold its first hearing on the case on January 21, Gupta added.

A defense lawyer accused Indian police Thursday of beating confessions out of five men charged with murdering and gang-raping a student in New Delhi, as they were due to appear in court again.

Speaking before a hearing at which a magistrate is expected to transfer the case to a fast-track court, M.L. Sharma told Agence France Presse that his clients had been beaten while in custody and were innocent of the charges.

India delivered a dressing-down Wednesday to Islamabad's envoy to Delhi as it accused Pakistan's army of beheading one of two soldiers killed in Kashmir, but both sides warned against inflaming tensions.

While Pakistan insisted no such incident had taken place and suggested a U.N. inquiry be held, India denounced the "inhuman" treatment of the troops who were killed two days after a Pakistani soldier was also slain in the Kashmir region.

Five men appeared in court for the first time on Monday to face charges over the murder and gang-rape of a 23-year-old student in New Delhi amid chaotic scenes that forced the hearing behind closed doors.

Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan told AFP the men had been appointed a defense lawyer, but declined to comment on reports that two of the defendants have reportedly offered to cooperate in return for more lenient sentences.

A public prosecutor said Saturday there was strong forensic evidence against five men accused of gang-raping a student in New Delhi on a moving bus as their trial began in a city court.

A district magistrate hearing the case took note of the charges including rape and murder on Saturday, signaling the start of the trial, and ordered the men to appear before her for the first time on Monday.

Indian police on Thursday formally charged five men with murder, kidnapping and rape following the fatal gang-rape of a young woman that appalled the nation.

"We have filed the charge sheet against the five accused," an investigating police officer told a magistrate hearing the case in the Saket court complex in New Delhi.

Lawyers at an Indian court hearing the case of a fatal gang-rape which has shocked the nation said Wednesday they would refuse to defend the men accused of taking part in the assault and murder.

Hearings are expected to begin on Thursday at the Saket district court in south New Delhi, where police will formally present a 1,000-page charge sheet against the six-person gang.

An Indian policeman who was injured in clashes during a protest over a gang-rape in New Delhi died on Tuesday, a police spokesman said.

The 47-year-old police constable, Subash Tomar, was deployed at the India Gate monument on Sunday to control the protests. He was beaten up by a mob and rushed to hospital by the police.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed for calm and vowed to protect women as police on Monday struggled to quell increasing outrage over sex crimes following the gang-rape of a student.

With large parts of central Delhi sealed off after a wave of violent protests, Singh said he understood the "genuine anger and anguish at this ghastly incident" a week ago but called for demonstrations to remain peaceful.

Indian police on Saturday baton-charged, tear-gassed and fired water cannon at demonstrators who were demanding better safety for women following the brutal gang-rape of a student last weekend.

Thousands of protesters, who rallied at the India Gate monument in the heart of the Indian capital and surged toward the president's palace, were calling for stepped-up security for women across the country.