M A I N   N E W S

Victim’s friend ‘identifies’ accused
Tribune News Service & PTI

New Delhi, December 20
One of the four accused in the brutal rape of a young paramedical student on Sunday was today “identified” by the victim’s friend during a test identification parade (TIP) at Tihar jail here. The 23-year-old victim’s male friend, an engineer in a software company, identified Mukesh during TIP, a senior police official said.

The police will probably seek the custody of Mukesh and interrogate him. Investigators, with the help of the woman’s friend, are likely to conduct the TIP of Ram, another accused.

They will probably make Ramadhar Singh a part of the TIP. He was allegedly picked up and robbed of Rs 8,000 by Ram and the other five accused during their joy ride.

This incident happened before the alleged gang-rape. The accused were using the chartered bus as public transport and planned to pick up passengers. They picked up Ramadhar from RK Puram and robbed him before dumping him at IIT-Delhi on Sunday. Ramadhar later lodged a complaint of robbery at the Vasant Vihar police station.

Meanwhile, the victim, who was gang-raped and brutally assaulted in a moving bus on Sunday night, asked today if the culprits had been caught.

“Have they been caught?” This is what the young student asked her family members when they met her in Safdurjung Hospital where she is undergoing treatment.

Four of the accused - Ram Singh, Pawan Gupta alias Kaloo, Vinay Sharma and Ram’s brother Mukesh - have been arrested.

Sources said the 23-year-old girl, who remained critical but stable, cannot speak as she has a tube in her mouth and communicates by writing on paper.

Having undergone a surgery to remove her gangrenous intestine, doctors said the girl passed an "uneventful night" and is "stable, alert and conscious".

In the morning, she was in stable condition.

“She is aware that the media has taken up the case,” they said.

Sources said her family is thankful to media but at the same time does not want their privacy intruded.

Yesterday, she had spoken to her mother and said, "I want to live".

Meanwhile, the police claim that the accused burnt the clothes of the victims. Investigators will examine the CCTV footage of the Saket Select Citywalk Mall, where the woman and her friend watched a movie before boarding the bus. The recovery of the clothes will act as evidence in the case.

Another officer said that Raju, Akshay and Ram were the main culprits behind the gruesome incident. “They have twisted minds. What they did was a horrifying act. We will probe if they have earlier committed a similar incident,” said the officer.

The police teams are searching for the other two accused - Akshay Thakur and Raju.