Delhi gang-rape victim taken off ventilator, all 6 accused arrested

All the six accused in the Delhi gang-rape case have been arrested with the two men on the run being caught today, five days after the assault on the 23-year-old paramedical student who was taken off ventilator but showed early signs of infection in a "mixed response".

As protests continued for the fifth day here including at India Gate and outside Congress President Sonia Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence over the dastardly crime in a moving bus on Sunday night, government vowed that the chargesheet in the case will be filed by Delhi Police "quickly" seeking maximum punishment of life term for the accused.

Akshay Thakur, the sixth and final accused who was one of the helpers in the bus, was arrested from his house in Bihar's Aurangabad district this evening.

"A joint team of Bihar police and Delhi police caught the accused Akshay Thakur from his home in Lahankarma village in Tandwa police station of Aurangabad district," In-Charge Superintendent of Police, Aurangabad, Pranav Kumar told PTI.

Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar confirmed the arrest.

The other accused on the run was apprehended from Uttar Pradesh's Badaun and he has claimed to be a minor.

"The fifth accused has been arrested in the rape case.

His age is being verified before giving details," Kumar told a press conference in the presence of Home Secretary R K Singh.

Four accused have been already arrested.

Singh complimented Delhi Police for cracking the "blind case" within a very short span of time.

But the heat was on the Police when the Delhi High Court slammed it for being "evasive" in its probe status report in providing details of its officers on patrol duty in the area covered by the bus in which the girl was gang-raped for about 40 minutes.

"She has shown some mixed response. She has shown some signs of improvement and there are some signs of deterioration. She is off the ventilator at the moment. She is no more on ventilator. She is breathing spontaneously on her own," Dr B D Athani, Medical Superintendent of the Hospital, told a press conference. She was on ventilator in the ICU ever since she was admitted on Sunday night.

On the deterioration in the girl's health, Athani said the level of Bilirubin, the yellow breakdown product of normal heme catabolism, has increased to five which is a cause of concern as it would affect liver.

"There are early signs of setting up of infection.

Infection seems to be setting in. These are early signs of sepsis. That is a part of the blood culture and several other.

We have sent blood for test," he said.