New Delhi:
The 23-year-old medical student who was gang-raped and hit with an iron rod for nearly 45 minutes on a Delhi bus is still in critical condition, say her doctors. She is conscious now and is communicating with the staff at her hospital by scribbling.
Doctors say that the next 48 hours are critical for her; they described the injuries to her intestines and private parts as "extremely serious."
The student was on her way home after watching
The Life of Pi at a South Delhi mall with a male friend. When the couple boarded a bus at about 9 pm, a group of men who were on the bus began harassing her, asking why she was out late with a man. When her friend tried to intervene, he was gagged and then hit mercilessly with an iron rod. Six men then hit the woman with the same rod and gang-raped her while the driver kept the bus moving. At about 11 pm, the couple was thrown semi-naked onto the road. (
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A passer-by phoned the police which then collected the couple and moved the pair to hospital.
Four men including the driver of the bus and his brother have been arrested.
The private bus was used by two schools but the driver was moonlighting on Sunday night, hoping to make an extra buck.
Delhi's Health and Welfare Minister Kiran Walia said the victim had been "tortured." "Doctors say she is very critical. The abdomen and the intestine are not in the right place. This is an absolutely abominable act and I condemn it," she said. (
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