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Woman gang-raped in Delhi bus, battles for life
A
23-year-old woman was battling for life here Monday after a gang
of men tortured and raped her in a moving bus and threw her out on
the road along with her boyfriend, police said.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit expressed disgust over the
horrific incident even as police detained »
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New Delhi: Anger, grief and outrage….it all spilled
over Tuesday as a 23-year-old continued to battle for life in a
Delhi hospital after being brutally tortured and gang-raped,
becoming the anguished cynosure of a nation whose leaders spoke
out in parliament and whose people took to the streets to voice
their protest.
Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar said four people had been
arrested for what is amongst the most horrific rape incidents ever
reported, putting the spotlight on the vulnerability of women in
India's national capital.
Those arrested were bus driver Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh,
fruit seller Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma, an instructor in the
Delhi government -run gym in Siri Fort. Two others, Akshay Thakur
and Raju, were absconding.
According to police, the men were out on a joyride and had been
drinking.
Doctors at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital, who said they had never
seen a rape victim who had been so grievously injured, said the
young physiotherapist was still critical and continued to be on
ventilator support.
"The patient is in critical condition and she is now trying to
speak. We can say it is a grievous injury and her intestines are
severely damaged," a doctor told IANS.
The brutal rape and torture occurred Sunday night when the girl
and a male friend boarded a private bus with tinted glasses. It
moved along the bustling south Delhi areas of Munirka, Vasant
Vihar and Mahipalpur as the men raped and tortured the girl and
beat her friend, using iron rods and more. The couple was
stripped, robbed and thrown off the bus near Mahipalpur.
The male friend was also taken to Safdarjung but discharged after
treatment.
As some bare, unspeakable details of the gang-rape began to emerge
in the media, a frisson of insecurity went up spines across cities
and towns but there was also palpable anger.
This found reflection not just in street demonstrations - in the
capital and in other cities - but also in parliament where MPs
spoke in one voice to condemn the barbaric crime and demand speedy
justice.
In a rare instance of both houses of parliament spending a
considerable part of the entire day discussing a crime that was
across most newspapers with banner headlines, there were emotional
speeches from members with many calling for the death sentence for
the rapists.
Amongst them was Leader of Opposition and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
leader Sushma Swaraj who demanded a statement from Home Minister
Sushilkumar Shinde.
"Accused in such cases should be hanged," thundered Sushma Swaraj,
adding that even if the 23-year-old survived she would be a "zinda
laash", traumatised for life.
Speaker Meira Kumar termed the incident "shameful and horrifying"
and urged the government to take immediate and stern steps in the
matter.
"We share the concern of the house. Strong steps would be taken in
the matter," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath said.
Congress leader Girija Vyas urged the house to pass a bill on
sexual assault on women and said states should set up fast track
courts to deliver justice in rape cases.
The anguish found echo in the Rajya Sabha too.
Samajwadi Party's Jaya Bachchan broke down in the house saying she
wondered what would happen to the girl's family, while Trinamool
Congerss's Derek O'Brien said as the father of a teenaged girl he
was scared.
Bachchan also said rape should be treated at par with attempt to
murder.
"I stand here nervous and scared as the father of a 17-year-old
daughter," O'Brien said.
"Rape is not just a women's issue. It's about men who stop
behaving like human beings and start behaving like animals," he
said.
Outside parliament, analysts tried to make sense of what had
happened, the psychopath edge of the crime that gave it its
bestiality.
Saying that this was a sociopathic crime, psychiatrist Sanjay
Chugh told CNN-IBN: "The mindset of the perpetrators of gangrape
is an amalgam of mob/herd mentality, disinhibition, utter
disrespect for social norms and a certain knowledge that the so
called protectors of law will either turn a blind eye or can be
pressurised or simply bought with a certain sum of money."
Carrying slogans like "mere skirt se oonchi meri aawaz hai",
Delhi's women - and men - who demonstrated this Tuesday asking for
exemplary punishment, agreed.
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