23-year-old physiotherapist gangraped in Delhi bus, critical

NEW DELHI: Late Monday, police arrested the main accused in the Capital’s latest rape case even as the victim struggled for her life — with attending doctors claiming they had never seen a victim of sexual assault subjected to “such brutality”.

The 23-year-old had been raped in a moving bus by four people for about 25 minutes on Sunday night, and doctors who attended on her said she seemed to have been beaten with a blunt object and sustained injuries to the stomach and intestine.

The accused, identified as Ram Singh, 30, was driving the bus which he uses to ferry students of a prominent school in Pushp Vihar as well as Noida.

Police also arrested Mukesh, who was an accomplice.

“This 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,” said a senior doctor at Safdurjung Hospital where the victim was admitted.

Chhaya Sharma, deputy commissioner of police (south) said seven people had been detained for questioning.

The victim, a physiotherapist from Uttam Nagar and her friend, a 28-year-old software engineer, had gone to the Select Citywalk mall in Saket to catch a movie.

By the time the show was over, it was past 8pm and the couple took an autorickshaw to the DDA Munirka bus stop on Outer Ring Road.

After waiting for more than half an hour, the two decided to board a luxury bus en route Dwarka and Palam Village. No sooner than they boarded the bus that one of the seven occupants made a lewd comment.

The victim, in the meantime, was forced into the driver’s cabin, where the men took turns to rape her. The bus, meanwhile, circled the Mahipalpur flyover thrice before dumping them.

Later, the girl and the boy were thrown out at a toll plaza on NH8 near the Mahipalpur flyover.

A highway patrol team discovered the unconscious couple bereft of clothing at 10.15pm. They were eventually taken to Safdarjung Hospital by police.