FIVE men pled not guilty yesterday to charges they raped and murdered an Indian trainee physiotherapist, in a case that led to a shake-up of sex crime laws after protests about a rising number of attacks on women.

Police say the gang lured the 23-year-old woman onto a bus in New Delhi, where they repeatedly raped and assaulted her with a metal bar before throwing her onto a road. She died of internal injuries two weeks after the December 16 attack.

The next hearing is on Tuesday, and is the formal start of the trial.