Gang rape in New Delhi, India on 16 December 2012: India ashamed on the inhuman act of its citizens

© Harish Jharia 

Delhi witnessed it’s never before, barbaric gang rape of a 22 year girl committed by six goons on 18 December 2012 on a luxury bus running on a busy road of a posh colony. This bus operated as a school bus in daytime and was driven away in the late evening by its driver for a joy ride along with his cleaner and four friends. This gang of six young ruffians first drank liquor and ate chicken in the bus, before venturing out at 9pm. They decided to ferry late evening passengers for earning extra money and buy yet more liquor for drinking.

Their first prey was a lone young man who was returning back from his office to home. The bus crew offered him to drop at his desired place for 10 rupees. But, once the passenger boarded the bus they attacked him and looted approximately 1500 rupees and a mobile phone from him in the running vehicle. Then they stopped the vehicle and pushed the man out of the bus and drove away. The goons might have threatened their first victim before releasing him, so much so that he did not dare to report the burglary to the police.

It was about 9:30pm when the six ruffians drove ahead and spotted a young couple by the side of the road. The bus stopped at them and the crew offered them to carry to their destination for 10 rupees each. The young girl, a paramedical student and her friend boarded the bus. The impatient drunk ruffians started teasing the girl with lustful comments and filthy gestures in the running bus. 

The young friend of the girl objected to the eve-teasing and the lewd advances of the bus crew. The 4-5 goons, out of the drunken bus crew of six, attacked the young man with an iron rod, blows and kicks, while one of them kept the bus driving on the busy roads. The young man fought to his capacity while his female companion also tried to resist the attackers and bit the hand of one of them.  But, the 5 drunken barbarians overpowered the young man, took the girl to the driver’s cabin and brutally raped her for more than an hour. The bus crew then stripped the girl and the young man before pushing them out of the bus at a secluded place.  

The police lifted the injured paramedical girl student and her friend from the site and admitted them to the Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi.  The girl had multiple injuries all over her body and her vital organs were severely damaged. She was immediately sent to ICU and critical surgeries and advanced medication were administers to her for saving her life. The injured young man was discharged the next day. But the severely injured girl is still fighting for her survival in the ICU for the fourth day. 

There are some instinctive observations that can be noticed from the successive events in this ghastly cruel incident:

The culprits:

• The culprits must have been doing this burglary and gang rapes for quite some time. Because, their successive operations were obviously well organized and expertized. 
• The culprits must be having diversified criminal past in other criminal fields also. Because, the brutality with which they did all sorts of slitting, beating, battering etc on the helpless girl, can only be done by hardcore criminals with coldblooded and perverted mindset.   

The Police:

1. It is obviously clear that security arrangements by police were absent all around the places, wherever the ill-fated bus moved with the six ruffians, committing the brutal crime in the running bus.
2. The Delhi police officers looked quite casual in their looks as well as in their statements while appearing on TV channels. The Police Commissioner found sitting upright only when he addressed a press conference with the Home Secretary.  Nevertheless, in all other interviews he appeared in reclined posture. 

The people: 

1. It is reported that the injured girl and the boy were lying by the side of the road, without any clothes on their bodies, but, no one bothered to provide clothes to them or at least cover them with some bed sheet or cloth. People crowded around them but remained mere idle spectators.
2. People who noticed the injured nude victims lying unattended should have immediately have provided first-aid, carried them to the hospital and informed the police on Police Control Room phone number 100. 

The deterrent:

1. The gang rape culprits should be awarded death sentence based on their deadly attack, multiple injuries, inflicting damage to her vital organs, so much so that she was about to die and is still under threat of death. 
2. The culprits deserve no lesser sentence than capital punishment because even if the girl victim of gang rape survives her deadly injuries, she will live like a dead-body. 
3. The culprits have almost butchered the girl in addition to the brutal gang-rape and the same should be treated as a murder. 
4. A dedicate amendment in the Indian constitution will have to be brought in the parliament, in order to pass a bill specifying a law for ‘death sentence for the rarest of the rare rape cases. 

The women:

1. Women activists and commentators should not mix-up this gang-rape with the possessiveness and protective instincts of their brothers, fathers and other family members. 
2. This is not the right time to justify and glorify skin-tight and revealing outfits adorned by modern women and girls. 
3. They should not justify late-night partying and midnight roaming around by women and girls on seclude roads and parks. 

Women should beware of the fact that the Indian capital Delhi has figured as the topmost city in the country for its notoriety against women. It has recorded the highest number of rapes in 2011 and emerged as the most unsafe place for the female citizens. 

Following are the figures of rape cases reported in the year 2011, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau NCRB statistics: Delhi (572); Mumbai (221); Bhopal (100); Bangalore (97); Jaipur (92); Pune (79); Chennai (76); Ahmedabad (60); Hyderabad (59); Kolkata (46); Thiruvananthapuram (39); Lucknow (38); Kochi (30); Patna (27); Coimbatore (9). 

In view of above, the Indian government and the Indian police should take revolutionary measure to create a strong deterrent against recurrence of such type of gang-rape in Delhi and else were in India.

Indian women and girls should avoid criticizing their family members for the possessiveness they have for their daughters. There is no justification in venturing out in the midnights and roam around on deserted roads on pleasure trips. Employers of women who work in shifts in their organizations should make adequate arrangements for women employees to drop them at their doorsteps.

The last but not the least requirement is that the police should ensure constant patrolling by PCR vans and deploy plainclothes policemen for nabbing antisocial elements and goons.
  
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