The mother of the 14-year-old Punjab girl who died after being thrown off a bus by molestors
A day after a 14-year-old in Punjab died on the road, having been thrown off a moving bus, the grisly details of her last few minutes have emerged. She tried with her mother to escape the men on board who wanted to molest her; the crew of the bus joined in the harassment; a dozen passengers did nothing to help.
In the bus that had dark windows and curtains - a violation of rules - the girl and her mother were abused and groped by half a dozen men.
"No one helped. They first pushed my daughter off the bus, then me," said the girl's 36-year-old mother. She alleged that when she pleaded with the driver to stop the bus, he stuck out his tongue and drove even faster.
The union home ministry has asked for a report on the incident, which took place on a private bus owned by the family of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, an ally of the ruling BJP.
All four accused, the driver, the bus conductor, a cleaner and their friend, have been arrested.
"It is unfortunate," said the Chief Minister when asked about his family's link to the bus. Documents show that his son and deputy Sukhbir Singh Badal and daughter-in-law Harsimrat Kaur Badal have stakes in Orbit Aviation, the company that runs the bus.
The Badal connection, allege opposition parties, was the reason it took the police 15 hours to make the arrests.
The teen and her mother were going for a visit to a gurudwara or Sikh temple last evening when their journey turned into one that's being compared to that of Nirbhaya - the young Delhi student who was fatally gang-raped on a moving bus in 2012.
The teen hit her head and died on the spot. Her mother is now in hospital with serious injuries.
With the girl was her younger brother, just 10. He was dropped off a little distance away from where his mother and sister had been dumped. He walked till he found them lying on the road.