Their lust satisfied, the battered woman and her friend were dumped by a roadside at Mahipalpur, about eight kilometres away.
They lay there naked, shivering and bleeding. No one seemingly bothered to stop by. It was a routine patrol of the National Highway Authority of India that saw the two and alerted the police.
As the enormity of the crime became known, India was shocked. Doctors at Safdarjung Hospital said they had never seen any rape victim like her.
As the woman struggled to live, at one point telling her family that she did not want to die, angry citizens hit the streets across India.
New Delhi saw the largest protests, with violence one day leading to a policeman's death.
As demonstrators ranted against the callousness of a system that let buses to ply illegally and allowed such violence to take place, officials were forced to act.
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