New Delhi (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The debate on the safety of women in India has been rekindled, after a gang rape that took place on the evening of December 16 last on a bus in New Delhi. The victim, a girl of 23, was admitted to Safdarjung Hospital in critical condition. The girl, who suffered injuries to her face and serious abdominal injuries, is attached to a respirator. A friend of hers, attacked in an attempt to defend her, has already been discharged from hospital. Meanwhile, the police have arrested six people suspected of being involved in the violence, even if the rapists could be seven. The driver is also among those detained. The young man is a student of physiotherapy.
The girl and her friend - whose identity the police have not revealed - got on the bus at 21:30 (local time), after being to the cinema. According to the Deputy Commissioner of Police Chhaya Sharma, four men made lewd comments about the young woman and picked an argument with her friend. The men beat the boy with iron bars and stripped him. They then took the girl, beat her and pushed her into the driver's cabin, where the brutal violence took place. An hour later, the attackers threw the couple out of the bus, who were found unconscious and bleeding by the security guard on a construction site.
The chief minister of the state, Sheila Dikshit, called the event a "shocking case and out of the norm." The woman said that "the guilty will not enjoy security in any circumstances," because "we need a exemplary punishment." According to preliminary police report, the driver and the cleaner were accomplices of the four rapists.
New Delhi, India's capital and seat of the central government, has the dubious distinction of being one of the cities with the highest number of rapes. Only last year, the police recorded 582 cases.