Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: The fateful bus used in the December 16 gang-rape was being run illegally with the connivance of transport officials, but who in the department was behind the bus` permit will be hard for the Crime Branch to trace as the files with the bus` papers have reportedly gone missing.
During the investigation, sleuths had discovered that Dinesh Yadav, the owner of the bus in which the gang-rape took place, was running the bus illegally, but they couldn`t find the files that `have mysteriously gone missing`, a newspaper report quoted investigators as saying.
Cops were repeatedly told by the transport office that the records had not been preserved and since the vehicle was registered over 10 years back, its papers had been destroyed.
IOs fear that the lack of documents could help retired traffic inspector Jai Bhagwan (60), who was arrested in the case, go scot-free.
The gang-rape accused had claimed that Bhagwan Singh had helped him secure a driving license on forged papers. The bus involved in the crime did not have a fitness certificate or permit and had been impounded over six times in 24 months.
On December 16 last year, the young woman, along with her friend, had boarded a bus in south Delhi only to be raped by six men on the vehicle. They had also beaten her friend and thrown them both outside the moving bus.
The young woman died in a Singapore hospital later.
Of six men accused in the case, one committed suicide in jail, another is a minor and is being tried by a juvenile court. Four other accused are being tried by a fast track court here.
