New Delhi, January 4
The Delhi gang-rape victim’s male friend today broke his silence over what happened on the night of December 16 and criticised the police for its tardy response.

Narrating the sequence of events, the 28-year-old engineer, named by Zee News as Awindra Pandey, alleged that the police squabbled over jurisdiction and took two-and-a-half hours to take them to Safdarjung Hospital, 10 km from Mahipalpur where they were dumped after being brutalised. All this while the couple lay by the roadside badly injured and naked.

Pandey said three Police Control Room (PCR) vans reached the crime scene, but the personnel wasted time in deciding under which police station's jurisdiction the case fell. The PCR vans are said to have been stationed under the flyover in Mahipalpur that connects Delhi to Gurgaon.

“Three PCR vans came but none helped us. The police staff started debating the jurisdiction of the police station that controlled the area where we were dumped. As we were naked, we kept requesting them for clothes, but the PCR staff continued to argue over jurisdiction,” he alleged.

The Delhi Police has denied Pandey’s claims and filed a case against the television network under Section 228 of the IPC for disclosure.

Pandey, the lone witness to the crime, said several people were present at the scene, but nobody helped them. He claimed that a man later telephoned the police. The PCR vehicles arrived 30-45 minutes later.

“Auto-rickshaws and cars passed by and slowed down to take a look. For 25 minutes, no one came to help. People just surrounded us. They had vehicles, someone could have at least taken my friend to the hospital,” said Pandey, adding that the victim may have survived had she been admitted to a hospital other than Safdarjung.

Pandey said he and his friend boarded the white chartered bus from the Munirka area around 9 pm after watching a movie. He said some of the accused pretended to be passengers. The couple had confirmed the route of the bus.

He said after a while, they made lewd remarks about his friend. “A fight started between me and three of the accused. I was beating them up until two more of them joined in and hit me with a rod. My friend was shouting and was trying to save me. After I became slightly unconscious, they dragged my friend to the rear of the bus. Later, I heard them saying she was dead. They again started hitting me,” he said.

The accused stripped him and his friend and stole their belongings. “They threw us off the bus. They tried crushing us under the bus, but I pulled my friend and saved her. Their intention was to kill us,” he alleged, adding he went to the Vasant Vihar police station after the incident and registered a complaint.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) may study the tape of the televised interview of Awindra Pandey and decide on the further course of action on his allegations. In case there is substance in his allegations against police lethargy and delayed medical attention to them, he may be asked to depose before the Justice Usha Mehra Commission.