{"id":14413,"date":"2013-01-05T08:10:55","date_gmt":"2013-01-05T13:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=14413"},"modified":"2013-01-05T08:10:55","modified_gmt":"2013-01-05T13:10:55","slug":"violent-sexual-assault-incident-in-delhi-ignites-fire-in-country-for-the-dignity-of-indias-daughters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=14413","title":{"rendered":"Violent Sexual Assault Incident in Delhi Ignites Fire in Country for the Dignity of India’s Daughters"},"content":{"rendered":"

By M. S. Shah Jahan<\/strong><\/p>\n

“We are very sad to report that the patient passed away peacefully at 4:45 a.m. on December 29, 2012 (2045 GMT Friday). Her family and officials from the High Commission of India were by her side. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mount Elizabeth Hospital team of doctors, nurses and staff join her family in mourning her loss,” Mount Elizabeth Hospital chief executive officer Kelvin Loh said in a statement.
\n
\nPrior to this, the hospital said the condition of the rape victim had taken a “turn for the worse”. <\/p>\n

“As of 9pm (6:30pm IST), the patient’s condition has taken a turn for the worse. Her vital signs were deteriorating with signs of severe organ failure. This is despite doctors fighting for her life including putting her on maximum artificial ventilation support, optimal antibiotic doses as well as stimulants which maximise her body’s capability to fight infections,” Loh had said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The patient had remained in an extremely critical condition since admission to hospital in the morning of December 27 (Singapore time), the Mount Elizabeth hospital statement further said.<\/p>\n

“She had suffered from severe organ failure following serious injuries to her body and brain. She was courageous in fighting for her life for so long against the odds but the trauma to her body was too severe for her to overcome. Despite all efforts by a team of eight specialists in Mount Elizabeth Hospital to keep her stable, her condition continued to deteriorate over these two days.”<\/p>\n

“We are humbled by the privilege of being tasked to care for her in her final struggle. We acknowledge the faith the Indian government and the patient’s family have placed with us to ensure the best care possible was indeed provided to her at Mount Elizabeth Hospital.<\/p>\n

We share their huge sadness at her passing and will work with the High Commission of India to provide the family support in this time of grief,” said Dr Loh.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But the said girl, having gained conscious two days after she was admitted to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital and being unable to speak as she had a tube in her mouth, scribbled on a piece of paper and showed to her weeping parents, ” I want to live”, “Have they been caught?”. Alas! What a pity! She did not live but they have been caught.<\/p>\n

Let us go back. It was little after 8 pm on Sunday the 16th December. A young couple alighted from an auto rickshaw at the DDA Munirka bus stop on Outer Ring Road after watching a movie in the PRV cinema at the’ Select Citywalk Mall’ in Saket suburb of New Delhi. <\/p>\n

‘Select Citywalk’ is a premier shopping mall located in the Saket District Centre, in Saket, that is one of the upcoming middle-class neighborhood of Saket in south Delhi. <\/p>\n

The 1,300,000 sq ft (120,000 m2). retail development is spread over 6 acres (24,000 m2) and includes a multiplex, serviced apartments, offices and public spaces. It is the first large-scale shopping mall to open in south Delhi.<\/p>\n

Ram Singh, an often drunk driver aged 33, was hired by a private operator to drive a bus used by a school for the past 10 months. On that Sunday night, he was off-duty and allowed his brother Mukesh to take the wheel. <\/p>\n

The brothers and four of their friends decided to go on a joyride. They posed as the sort of chartered bus that is often used as public transport in Delhi, offering to commuters for Rs. 10 fares. A carpenter who boarded the bus was robbed of Rs. 8,000. <\/p>\n

The bus dropped him off and looked for passengers at the DDA Munirka bus stop where the couple were waiting more than half an hour for a bus. Therefore they, a 23 year old physiotherapist intern and her 28 year old software engineer male friend decided to board this luxury bus en route Dwarka and Palam Village. <\/p>\n

Singh said the couple had not been selected in any way since southwest Delhi’s Dwarka, as an intended destination, had been selected by the men on the bus randomly, and they had done nothing to lure the couple onto the bus instead of claiming that theirs was a chartered bus.<\/p>\n

The bus had tinted windows and curtains, banned in Delhi. No sooner the couple boarded the bus Raju one of the six occupants made a lewd comment on the girl. Ram Singh and his other friends taunted her asking why she was out late with a man and started harassing her. <\/p>\n

Her friend – her would be groom intervened and tried to stop. Raju was the first to brutally assault him with an iron rod striking his head over and over. The girl tried to protect her friend, infuriating the assaulters who decided to punish her. <\/p>\n

Singh claimed he got incensed when he was bitten by the girl when he was assaulting the man and had started beating her mercilessly \u2014 especially on her face and private parts with his shoe.<\/p>\n

First, they hit her. Then they forced her into the driver’s cabin and took turns raping her while one of them kept the bus circling on South Delhi’s roads. Raju was the third one to sexually assault her after Singh and Akshay Thakur.<\/p>\n

The bus kept driving passing few check posts manned by police and it circled the Mahipalpur flyover. Even the two U-turns the bus took below the Mahipalpur flyover had been made in compulsion.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

During the first round of the flyover, the victim was being gangraped and a spot to dump the couple was being ascertained. The second time, the bus had taken the same route and the girl and the boy were thrown out at the pre-decided spot – at a toll plaza on NH8 near the Mahipalpur flyover. <\/p>\n

The tinted windows of the privately-owned bus concealed the horror that went on for 25 minutes, unfolding within. A highway patrol team discovered the unconscious couple bereft of clothing at 10.15pm. They were eventually taken to Safdarjung Hospital by police.<\/p>\n

Doctors who attended on her said she seemed to have been beaten with a blunt object and sustained injuries to the stomach and intestine. \u201cThis is not only an animalistic act, but in the past 20 years I have spent in this profession I have never seen a victim of sexual assault being subjected to such brutality,\u201d said Dr.B.D. Athani, a senior doctor at Safdurjung Hospital.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Sonia Gandhi wrote in a letter dated Dec. 18 and addressed to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, said ; \u201cIt is a matter of shame that these incidents recur with painful regularity and that our daughters, sisters and mothers are unsafe in our capital city. \u201cI would urge you to take whatever steps are necessary to undertake community action, to strengthen law and order, and to step up vigilance to protect women,\u201d Mrs. Gandhi added. <\/p>\n

The young woman was studying physiotherapy in Dehradun, a city in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. She was a very good student and made up her mind very early that she wanted to become a doctor” said the institute\u2019s director. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a mild person and was only interested in academics,\u201d a relative said. \u201cShe believed only education could help people shape their future,\u201d an unnamed friend quoted adding that the woman was \u201cgood at studies\u201d and had \u201cbeautiful handwriting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wanted to ensure that she studied well, stood on her own feet and made it big in life so she could ensure a better future for her family,\u201d the friend said. A neighbor was quoted as saying: \u201cShe was a go-getter and fiercely independent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at her and learn from her. Look how well she studies, aspire to be like her\u201d was what parents in the neighborhood used to tell their own children.<\/p>\n

Mega actor Amithab Bachan wrote a poem in her memory.<\/p>\n

“With the passage of time, the candles shall burn out and lose their flame…<\/p>\n

The flowers offered with devotion, shall in the absence of water, get dry and weathered out…
\nThe voices of protest both vocal and silent, shall lose their strength…<\/p>\n

But the ‘fearless’ ( nirbhayata ) fire that has been ignited, shall rekindle the flames in our hearts…<\/p>\n

The waterless dry and weathered flowers, shall be brought to life drenched by the tears in our eyes…<\/p>\n

With a burning throat the soul of ‘Damini’ and ‘Amaanat’, shall be voiced in the entire universe…<\/p>\n

That I am the Mother, sister and daughter of my Bharat…
\nRespect and dignity are my birthright possessions ..<\/p>\n

Bharat the country is my Mother… Forget about me, become at least the recognised worthy face of your Mother..!!”<\/p>\n