Seven years ago, on this same day, 16th December, 2012 on that day a 23 year old girl was returning home after watching the film ‘life of pie’ in Saket, South Delhi with her friend Awindra Pratap Pandey on a chilly December night around 8pm. After trying their luck for an auto rickshaw, they boarded a white bus at a busy bus stop.
The bus had 5 male passengers apart from the driver. Everything seemed ordinary, but things soon turned out to be straight out of a horror fiction. One of the men, a juvenile Mohd. Afroz told her that the bus was going towards their destination.
But the bus deviated from its route n the doors were shut firmly. The men on the bus started taunting her, a scuffle endured between Pandey and them, he was beaten black and blue, gagged and knocked unconscious with an IRON ROD. Meanwhile others took the girl to the rear end of the bus.
Hit her with the same ROD, raped her brutally on the moving bus, inserted the a wheel jack handle into her, pulled out her intestines, uterus and causes unrepairable damage to her genitals n internal organs.
But this girl was a fighter. She fought with all the 6 men with such guts that it left bite marks on their hands and bodies. But it was not enough. They over powdered her, threw her and Pandey off the moving bus and even tried to drive the bus over her but Pandey pulled her to safety.
The partially clothed victims laid on the road cried out for help, but no one. At around 11pm a kinder passerby called the Delhi Police n they were taken to Safdar Jung Hospital by 19th December she had her 5th surgery, removing her 90% intestines.
But she was intubated, had sepsis, had high fever and on a critical condition. She was in ICU, scheduled for organ transplant in a few weeks. Then GOI decided to fly her to Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore for further care. CM of Delhi, Sheila Dixit was behind the decision.
HM Chidambaram had earlier rejected the plea to transfer her. But she had to take a 6 hour flight by air ambulance on 27th December, during which she went to “near collapse” or “cardiac arrest”. Doctors on board tried to stabilise her but she never regained consciousness again.
The staff at Singapore hospital said she suffered brain damage, pneumonia, abdominal infection and she was steadily deteriorating. She died there on 29th December, 2012.
Delhi Police arrested Ram Singh (driver), his brother Mukesh Singh, Vijay Sharma (gym instructor), Pawan Gupta (fruit seller), Akshay Thakur (unemployed) & Mohd Afroz (The Juvenile). All were arrested from different parts of the country. The juvenile had met them that day only.
They were eating, drinking and had a party earlier that day. They ventured out in the bus with tinted windows and yellow curtains. During the day they had also robbed a carpenter Ram Adhar, it was the juvenile again who lured him into the bus.
After they were arrested they were sentenced to death. Mukesh was assaulted by his inmates in Tihar Jail, after arrest Ram Singh was discovered hanging in his cell on 11th March, 2013.
Mohd Afroz was released after 3 yrs, spending in a juvenile home. He was GIFTED a sewing machine and Rs.10,000 a financial aid from DCW of Delhi CM, the juvenile home has kept his whereabouts secret, but sources say he was influenced at home and has become a fundamentalist.
I know you have guessed rightly that I am talking about “NIRBHAYA” (Real Name – “Jyoti Singh”). Yes she was instrumental in changing our country’s laws, the Criminal Law Act 2013, Jevenile Justice Bill 2014. A fund was set up to ensure women’s safety – Nirbhaya Fund.
It was not that late. She was not alone. She & her friend took a public transport. What wrong did she do? Many of the urban women travel the same way DAILY.
However it was not enough for her. A gruesome incident that would shook the nation, she would symbolise women’s struggle to end atrocities on women. And a juvenile that would get scot free even after doing some of the heinous crimes men has ever done.
A high profile case like this was thought to at least deter men from committing such gruesome crimes. But Every Single Day we see women to be subjected to sexual cruelty & brutality. Statistics say a woman raped every 20 minutes in our country. But that’s not the whole story.
Most rapes are never reported because of fear of social stigma & perpetrators go scot free. In a country where a law maker says “Ladke se Galati ho jati hai” its obvious that the victims are often viewed with contempt and hate.
A country where a juvenile can go scot free, given aids to rehabilitate, victim can be as hapless as anything. We need stringent laws.
No one, even a juvenile should be acquitted if a crime is proven. A juvenile who can dare to commit such heinous crime should be tried as an adult. There should be no expectations.
After seven years they are still not hung. Her parents are still waiting for justice.
Justice is too bloody slow in this country. Inhumanly slow.
Sentence has been given but appeal after appeal. They’ll go to higher court and higher court. Mercy petition and all crap.
His whole life he’ll spend in prison and we’re paying taxes for him. And also There’s no hangman because all the human right activists and everybody said no capital punishment to rapists. So all the hangmen have been fired. So there’s No hangman. Even if you give the sentence nobody is there to pull the rope.
As for girls, you should learn to fight for our safety and security. Don’t crawl in shame, fight, face the world and be brave. Its they who have sinned, not you. Be a Goddess Kalika or Mahishasurmardini. You have it in yourself to prove that you can fight. Fight for justice and yourself.
Dear ladies, be a woman of substance, one with a spine. And dear men, be proud of the ladies in your life, they are shakti.
The Indian constitution enshrines women’s rights to equality, including freedom of voice, movement and rights over their own bodies. India’s designation hurts national pride because it is a country where millions of smartly dressed women go to work in high-rise offices every day, where laws have changed to protect women and where women and men have spilled into the streets to protest against the grotesque rapes of toddlers, the gang rape of eight-year-olds, and of young women activists protesting at the trafficking of women.Questions about the gender gap or gender equality into a question about women’s safety and danger. It is no longer a philosophical issue of rights. It simply asks: are women safe and free? It forces us to consider cultural forces and the implementation of laws that impact how women are actually treated in a culture, despite formal law, education, employment or income.Majority of our women do not feel safe alone on the streets, at work, in markets, or at home, even though they have learned how to cope with this existential anxiety. And most of those who said yes had learned to modify their behaviours to feel safe – they don’t go out alone unnecessarily; come home at night before dark; get permission to go out; are always careful and alert; and they censor their speech, their clothes and their body posture, including whether or not they look men in the eyes.Indian women are in a constant state of vigilance, like a country on alert. For rape there is no fixed time: always be alert.” 
