Gang-rape victim's friend traumatised, to leave Delhi

The father of the 28-year-old software engineer, who was beaten and his female friend gang-raped in a moving bus here, Wednesday said he would take him away to their hometown in Uttar Pradesh to help him recover from the harrowing incident.

"My son has been traumatised. It'll take him months to recover from the incident," the lawyer from Gorakhpur told IANS.

The 23-year-old woman, who was gang-raped by half-a-dozen men in a moving bus here Sunday night, is battling for life in Safdarjung Hospital here.

The men tortured and raped her and then dumped her on the road. Her male friend was also thrashed and thrown out of the bus along with her.

The couple had boarded the bus at Munirka to go to Dwarka after watching a film at a multiplex.

As the father spoke to IANS, his son stood by, his head covered with bandages and both his eyes blackened from the beating he had received Sunday night, when he fought with the six men as they raped his female friend.

Standing inside the Saket court to get his statement of the incident recorded before the metropolitan magistrate, the man looked shaken. Some of his relatives stood alongside, offering moral support to him and his father.

"His statement was recorded before the court today and after consulting doctors, we'll take him back to Gorakhpur," the father said.

"I could not meet the girl so far, as she is very critical and in ICU. But I will try to meet her," he said.

"We are thankful to Delhi Police that they solved the case in 24 hours and put the culprits behind bars," he said.

The lawyer said his son, his oldest child, who has an engineering degree, was living in the national capital for the past four years to prepare for the civil services examinations.

When IANS tried to speak to the youth, the father refused, saying that his son was traumatised and in no condition to speak.