New Delhi:
The software engineer who was battered on a Delhi bus as he tried to stop six men from raping his 23-year-old friend is meeting with a government commission today; he is expected to testify on how the police wasted time arguing about who should take charge of the case after the couple was found naked and bleeding on the road after being thrown from the bus on the night of December 16.
The relentless horror of the one-hour assault on the bus powered massive demonstrations in India. The government's initial inertia provoked more anger and it then appointed two commissions. One panel was asked to review existing laws covering sexual offences.
Another, headed by retired Delhi High Court judge Usha Mehra, was given time till March to suggest how to make women safer in Delhi, the "rape capital" of the country, and to fix accountability for the myriad lapses that allowed the savage gang-rape of Amanat (NOT her real name) who died two weeks later. Justice Mehra had summoned Amanat's friend today.
In a television interview, he recounted in chilling detail how Amanat and he were thrown from the bus by their attackers, and lay on the road bleeding, while many passers-by ignored them. Three police vans showed up, he said, and the officers who accompanied them wasted time arguing about whose jurisdiction applied, instead of moving the couple to hospital.
His testimony could indict the police for its response; though 7,000 suggestions have been received via email, mail and in person from the public, nobody has shared information about the police's alleged inaction when the couple was discovered on the roadside.
Senior members of the police force have been questioned by the commission.
While the police has not been castigated so far in any depositions, sources say the Justice Mehra commission has enough evidence to prove the negligence of the Delhi government's transport department and the city's traffic police.
The bus used for the heinous crime was contracted to a school; it had a range of serious traffic violations on its record, but had not been impounded. "How could a vehicle which had been caught six times, still ply on the roads,'' said a high-level official who testified for the commission.
The relentless horror of the one-hour assault on the bus powered massive demonstrations in India. The government's initial inertia provoked more anger and it then appointed two commissions. One panel was asked to review existing laws covering sexual offences.
Another, headed by retired Delhi High Court judge Usha Mehra, was given time till March to suggest how to make women safer in Delhi, the "rape capital" of the country, and to fix accountability for the myriad lapses that allowed the savage gang-rape of Amanat (NOT her real name) who died two weeks later. Justice Mehra had summoned Amanat's friend today.
In a television interview, he recounted in chilling detail how Amanat and he were thrown from the bus by their attackers, and lay on the road bleeding, while many passers-by ignored them. Three police vans showed up, he said, and the officers who accompanied them wasted time arguing about whose jurisdiction applied, instead of moving the couple to hospital.
His testimony could indict the police for its response; though 7,000 suggestions have been received via email, mail and in person from the public, nobody has shared information about the police's alleged inaction when the couple was discovered on the roadside.
Senior members of the police force have been questioned by the commission.
While the police has not been castigated so far in any depositions, sources say the Justice Mehra commission has enough evidence to prove the negligence of the Delhi government's transport department and the city's traffic police.
The bus used for the heinous crime was contracted to a school; it had a range of serious traffic violations on its record, but had not been impounded. "How could a vehicle which had been caught six times, still ply on the roads,'' said a high-level official who testified for the commission.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
