Delhi gang-rape victim`s friend refuses police protection

New Delhi: The key eyewitness in the Dec 16 gang-rape case - the victim`s friend - has refused to accept the security cover proposed by the Delhi Police.

"A sub-inspector level officer of the Delhi Police came Friday to offer security cover to my son. But my son sent him back saying he did not need it," father of the software engineer, who witnessed the gruesome gang-rape with his 23-year-old physiotherapist friend in Delhi, told IANS on telephone from Gorakhpur Monday. My son is safe every where in the country... People are with us, so what is the need to get the security cover," he said. Delhi Police offered the 28-year-old man and his family members police protection at their house in Uttar Pradesh`s Gorakhpur after directions were issued in this regard by Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, police sources said. Five of the accused, who brutally gang-raped the woman in a moving bus and later dumped her and the male friend on road, were arrested and sent to Tihar Jail in the capital. One more accused, who is a juvenile, has been put into an observation home in the Kingsway Camp area. IANS