Damini gangrape, the tale of a helpless daughter of India

New Delhi: The Dec 16, 2012 Delhi gang-rape case seems like a plot of Damini, a 1993 Hindi film directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, in which a rape victim dies after battling for life in a hospital. However, the similarity ends just there because this is reality - a reality which is hard to believe because it involves the brutal sexual assault of a young girl who wanted to serve the nation by becoming a paramedic. Months into the incident, the Juvenile Justice Board has pronounced the juvenile guilty. The teenager has been found guilty of taking part in the gang rape of a paramedical student.Let's go back and see what exactly happened on that fateful night. The victim, 23-year-old Damini (name changed) and her male friend were on their way home on the night of 16 December 2012 after watching the film Life of Pi in Saket in South Delhi. They boarded a chartered bus at Munirka for Dwarka that was being driven by joyriders at about 9:30 pm. There were only six others in the bus, including the driver. One of the men, a minor, had called for passengers telling them that the bus was going towards their destination. Damini's friend became suspicious when the bus deviated from its normal route and its doors were shut. When he objected, the group of six men already on board, including the driver, taunted the couple, asking what they were doing alone at such a late hour. When Damini's friend tried to intervene, he was beaten, gagged and knocked unconscious with an iron rod. The men then dragged Damini to the rear of the bus, beating her with the rod and raping her while the bus driver continued to drive. Medical reports later said that she suffered serious injuries to her abdomen, intestines and genitals due to the assault, and doctors said that the damage indicated that a blunt object (suspected to be the iron rod) may have been used for penetration. That rod was later described by police as being a rusted, L-shaped implement of the type used as a wheel jack handle. According to a report the minor was the most brutal attacker and had "sexually abused his victim twice and ripped out her intestines with his bare hands." Damini attempted to fight off her assailants, biting three of the attackers and leaving bite marks on the accused men. After the beatings and rape ended, the attackers threw both the victims from the moving bus. Then the bus driver allegedly tried to drive the bus over Damini, but she was pulled aside by her male friend. One of the perpetrators later cleaned the vehicle to remove evidence. Police impounded it the next day. The half naked victims were thrown out of the bus where several auto rickshaws, cars and bikes slowed down but no one stopped for about 25 minutes. The passerby phoned the Delhi Police, who took the couple to Safdarjung Hospital, where the female victim was given emergency treatment and placed on mechanical ventilation. The victim's friend rued the fact that three PCR vans arrived at the scene after about 45 minutes, but wasted time in deciding under which police station's jurisdiction the case fell. He said nobody, including the police, gave them clothes or called an ambulance. After repeated requests, someone gave him a part of a bed sheet to cover his friend. She was found with injury marks all over her body, and only five percent of her intestines remaining inside of her abdomen. Damini died from her injuries thirteen days later while undergoing emergency treatment in Singapore. The incident generated widespread anger and subsequent protests against the Government for not providing adequate security for women. Thousands of protesters clashed with security forces in Delhi. Similar protests took place in major cities throughout the country. All the accused were arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder. The accused driver, Ram Singh, died in police custody on 11 March 2013 in the Tihar Jail. According to some reports, the police say Ram Singh hanged himself, but defense lawyers and his family suspect he was murdered. Damini was born and raised in Delhi while her parents were from a small village in the Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh.