Four persons, who allegedly gang-raped the 23-year-old physiotherapy student in a moving bus, have been arrested. Two of their accomplices are still evading arrest.
The victim’s condition has deteriorated further. According to hospital sources, her blood pressure has gone down and pulse has gone up. She is still on ventilator support. While her mother was allowed to see her, her father is yet to meet his daughter.
The police have identified the arrested as Ram Singh, driver of the bus, his brother Mukesh, a fruit seller named Pawan and Vijay, a helper at a local gymnasium. The driver’s helpers, Akshay Thakur and Raju, are absconding. Accused Ram Singh was produced in a city court which sent him to five days’ police custody on Tuesday.
Claiming to have cracked the case, Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar said the accused were on a joyride when they decided to make some extra money by allowing in passengers during off-duty hours. They picked up the girl along with her male friend and on the way brutalised her before dumping her along with her male friend near the Mahipalpur flyover while the victims were in a semi-conscious state. The accused attacked the victim and her friend with rods, seriously injuring them.
Investigations have revealed that before they picked up the victim and her friend, they had robbed another passenger of his belongings and threw him out near IIT Delhi on Outer Ring Road.
To evade detection, accused Ram Singh first abandoned the vehicle at Rohilla Khurd in Uttar Pradesh, from where he brought it back to R.K. Puram and washed the entire bus clean to destroy evidence. The police are, nonetheless, trying to lift forensic evidence from the bus with the help of experts.
