Delhi Police action is an attempt to muzzle people's voice: BJP

New Delhi, Jan. 4 (PTI): The friend of the bus gang rape victim tonight accused Delhi police and passers-by of not helping the couple after they were thrown out of the vehicle.

“We were without clothes. We tried to stop passers-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 tonight.

Contradicting cops’ claims that they acted swiftly after being informed, he said the police vans arrived at the scene only after about 45 minutes and wasted time in deciding under whose jurisdiction the case fell.

The youth claimed that nobody, not even 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 bedsheet to cover the girl.

He rued that no one from the public came forward to help. “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.”

The friend said he had to carry the profusely bleeding girl to the police van on his own as the cops didn’t help. “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 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, recounting his trauma on the night of December 16.

“When I met my friend (the girl) 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 she gave the first statement to a lady magistrate, only then I came to know what had happened to her. “I couldn’t believe what they did to her. Even when animals hunt, they don’t mete out such brutality to their prey,” he said.

The police tonight registered a case against Zee News for airing the interview with the friend, who is the lone witness to the crime.

The case was filed under Section 228 (A) of the Indian Penal Code, which pertains to disclosure of identity of victim of certain offences, including rape, Delhi police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said.

The police contested the youth’s claims that the patrol vans reached the spot late. The control room received the call at 10.22pm and a van, PCR-Z-54, was directed to the spot. It reached there around 10.28pm. Another van, E-42, arrived there on its own at 10.26pm, police spokesperson Bhagat said late tonight.

The victims were picked up at 10.31pm and reached Safdarjung Hospital at 10.55pm, Bhagat said, adding that all PCR vans were fitted with GPS systems that could not be tampered with.

Today, the friend said they had been lured into boarding the private bus. “The bus occupants had everything planned. Apart from the driver and helper, others behaved like they were passengers. We even paid Rs 20 as fare. Then they started teasing my friend and the same led to a brawl. I beat three of them up but then the rest of them brought an iron rod and hit me. Before I fell unconscious, they took my friend away,” he told the channel.

New Delhi, Jan 5 (PTI) : The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday condemned the Delhi Police action against a news channel that had aired an interview of the gang-rape victim's friend, saying it is an attempt to muzzle the voice of the people and an attack on freedom of the press.

“Delhi Police cannot muzzle voice of the citizen by lodging a case against the channel. People have a right to know the truth,” Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj posted on micro-blogging site Twitter.

At a party programme, BJP general secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “Such behaviour from the police is unacceptable. This is an attack on the freedom of the press.”

Prasad criticised the Delhi Police for the undue delay in taking the victim and her friend to hospital on the fateful night.

“The two were lying semi-clad on the road after the incident and police personnel from three PCR vans were arguing for 25 minutes about whose jurisdiction the case falls under and who should take them to hospital,” Prasad said.

Ram Jethmalani, an eminent lawyer and a suspended BJP member of Parliament, criticized Delhi Police chief Neeraj Kumar for not conducting an inquiry and fixing responsibility for the lapse.

“We should have known that this has happened. What is the Police Commissioner doing there? Is he assaulting protesters doing all kind of funny things and what has to be done he doesn't do? Which police inspector is responsible? Which sub-inspector is responsible? The head of the police force should have by now have taken action,” he said.

“You must believe the injured person more, the police is totally untrustworthy,” he said.

Let us conduct a poll.

Do you believe the police version of the victim's.

The confidence on the police and politicians has sunk to such a low level that the public is not willing to accept anything said by the police for they know that their version is adulterated to the benefit of criminals and politicians.

Of course there is hardly any difference between the two.

If you don't believe me, please read my earlier post regarding a victim of police torture who had to commit suicide.