No one stopped to help, says gang-rape victim's friend

Breaking his silence, the sole witness and friend of the Delhi gang-rape victim said no one stopped to help them and when the police arrived they wasted time in deciding under which police station's jurisdiction the case fell. "We were without clothes. We tried to stop people passing by. Several auto rickshaws, cars and bikes slowed down but no one stopped for about 25 minutes. Then, someone on patrolling, stopped and called the police," he told Zee News in an interview on Friday night. He said nobody, including the police, gave them clothes or called an ambulance. "They were just watching us," he said, adding that after repeated requests, someone gave him a part of a bed sheet to cover his friend. "If you can help someone, help them. If a single person had helped me that night, things would have been different," he said. The victim's friend rued the fact that three Police Control Room (PCR) vans arrived at the scene after about 45 minutes, but wasted time in deciding under which police station's jurisdiction the case fell. Narrating the details of the incident on the horrified night of Dec 16, the 28-years old software engineer, said: "My friend was bleeding profusely. But instead of taking us to a nearby hospital, they (police) took us to a hospital that was far away." He had to carry his badly injured friend to the PCR vans on his own as the policemen didn't help them because the girl was bleeding profusely. The young women, who was brutally raped by six men on moving bus, died on Dec 29 due multiple organ failure. The six men currently under police custody. "Nobody from the public helped us. People were probably afraid that if they helped us, they would become witnesses to the crime and would be asked to come to police stations and courts," he told the channel. "Even at the hospital, we were made to wait and I had to literally beg for clothes. I borrowed a stranger's mobile and called my relatives, but just told them that I had met with an accident. My treatment started only after my relatives came," he said. The young man, who looked composed while recounting the details, said he was hit on the head. "I was not able to walk. I was not able to move my hands for two weeks," he said. The attackers snatched their mobiles, tore off their clothes in order to destroy any evidence of the crime before throwing them of the bus. "After throwing us off the bus, they tried to mow us down but I saved my friend by pulling her away in the nick of time," he said. "I never had thoughts of leaving her and running away. Even an animal would not do that. I have no regrets. But I wish I could have done something to help her. I do think, sometimes, about why I didn't get an auto, why did I take that bus." He said he only came to know what the attackers have done to her friend when she gave her statement to the lady sub-divisional magistrate. "I couldn't believe what they did to her. Even when animals hunt, they don't mete out such brutality to their prey." "She faced all of this and told the magistrate that the accused should not be hanged but burnt to death." "When I had met my friend in the hospital, she was smiling. She was able to write and was positive. I never felt that she did not want to live," he said. When asked what suggestions he would like to give in order to ensure that such incidents don't recur, the victim's friend said, the police should always try to ensure that the victims are taken to the hospital as soon as possible and not look for government hospitals. He also pointed out that one cannot change mindsets by lighting candles. "You have to help people on the road when they need help."