Delhi gang-rape victim battles for life, four held

As a girl in her 20s, a para-medical degree holder, battles for life at Safdarjung Hospital in the city following her gang-rape in a moving bus Sunday night, Delhi Police said four suspects have been held and CCTV footage of the bus has been recovered.

Reports said the girl's condition has deteriorated and she is on ventilator with grave injuries to her stomach and intestines. She bore signs of being beaten with a blunt object.

"The patient is very critical," S.N. Makwana, public relations officer at Safdarjung Hospital, told IANS.

The incident occurred when the girl, along with her 28-year-old male friend, boarded the bus at Munirka to go to Dwarka, after watching a movie in Saket.

A police official said both reached Munirka in an auto and boarded the bus around 9.15 p.m. Sunday.

Around five to seven bus employees, already present in the bus, started misbehaving with the girl in the moving vehicle. When the girl's friend intervened, he was beaten up and the girl sexually assaulted as the bus driver drove around for 45 minutes.

The girl and her boyfriend were then thrown out of the bus under Mahipalpur flyover in south Delhi. The assailants snatched their mobiles.

A toll plaza patrol vehicle spotted them and called the police, who took them to Safdarjung Hospital around 12.15 a.m. Monday.

While the girl battles for life, her friend was discharged Monday morning.

"The patient is critical and that is all I can say as of now," Safdarjung hospital PRO, S.N. Makwana told IANS.

Vasant Vihar police have recorded the statement of the girl's male friend and registered a case against unidentified people.

Delhi Police said they have detained four men suspected to be involved in the alleged rape. Two buses have also been impounded.

"We cannot divulge names of the detained people and the place from where they were picked up as the investigation is underway," said a police official at Vasant Vihar police station.

The official added that police have recovered CCTV footage of the bus from the Gurgaon toll plaza and are likely to release it.

The male friend's uncle said: "Five to seven persons attacked the couple. When my nephew tried to save the girl, he was beaten with iron rods. The girl was then gang-raped."

The girl, who is from Ballia in Bihar and presently lives in Mahavir Enclave in west Delhi's Uttam Nagar, has completed her para-medical course from Dehradun and is doing an internship at a city hospital.

The girl's male friend is from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and lives in South Delhi's Ber Sarai area. He is a B.Tech from Meerut and is preparing for the civil services.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, appalled at the girl's condition, said: "Strict action will be taken against her attackers. The transport department has told me that the licence of the bus has been cancelled and strict action would be taken not only against the White Line bus but also to prevent any such incidents."

Education and Social Welfare Minister Kiran Walia said: "No one will be spared. It is a shocking incident. We will take strict action."

Mamta Sharma, chairperson of the National Commission for Women, said she would speak with Dikshit and keep a tab on police investigation into the case.

"If an incident like this can take place in the thickly populated Munirka area, it just shows that the police are not alert," she said.

Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said: "Neither the home ministry nor Delhi Police are able to check such incidents which have been on the rise. Delhi's law and order is being handled very irresponsibly by the Delhi government."