New Delhi: As she continues to battle for her life, the 23-year-old gang-rape victim has given a "fearless and bold" statement before a magistrate about the brutal assault on Sunday night and wants her tormentors to be swiftly brought to justice.
The statement was recorded before a Sub-Divisional Magistrate by the girl yesterday at the Intensive Care Unit of the Safdarjung Hospital where she has been undergoing number of surgeries and medication since her admission there on Sunday night.
Delhi Police said the girl's statement corroborates with the version of her male friend who was also assaulted brutally by six men inside a moving bus on Sunday last.
"We are continuously in touch with her parents. She is stable and she got her statement recorded in the presence of a Sub-Divisional Magistrate. She has given a fearless and bold statement. It corroborates with what her male friend has told us," Chhaya Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Police, South, said.
She said the statement would be of "extremely valuable" to the police who are pursuing the case.
About the condition of the girl, Sharma said she is eager that justice is "meted out" to those people.
"In fact, she was so enthusiastic that she wanted to talk to me. But I told her that she has to talk to another person (SDM)," the police official said.
The girl has started speaking to doctors since yesterday and is now breathing on her own without the support of ventilator.
About the arrest of the two persons involved in the case, Sharma said the police team had done a "painstaking, meticulous and awesome" job when it came to picking up the remaining two accused.
Sharma said the juvenile Raju, name changed, is a vagabond who has been out of his home for the past few years and had been in the bus on the fateful day and even shouted to the girl and the boy asking them to board the vehicle.
The police also recovered the victim's mobile phone from Raju.
"It was a completely blind case. We did not have even his photo, neither does he carry a mobile phone. But all we knew was that he was a cleaner and he was very good at soliciting customers. He could shout very well," Sharma said.
She said Raju was caught from Anand Vihar Bus Terminus after they caught 10 people in his name and interrogated them.
Raju left his home five years back and had never communicated with his parents and he is a "wavering" character.
He had worked in dhabas, tea shops as well as in buses as cleaner and his previous employers helped police in arresting him.
To a question, the police official said the juvenile could be the one who asked the couple to get into the bus.
Another accused Akshay Kumar Singh was arrested from Aurangabad yesterday after five days of searches. Sharma said police teams went to six states, inlcuding Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, in search of Singh and he was finally arrested from Bihar yesterday.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, December 22, 2012, 12:54