It was 10.20 p.m. on 16 December 2012. The incessant traffic on National Highway 8 between Delhi and its satellite city, Gurugram, refused to abate even though it was well past peak hours. Wave after wave of speeding vehicles sped on the highway like swelling waters gushing in a river in spate. A light smog hung in the air, occluding light from the already dim street lights from reaching the road, making the atmosphere seem dark, eerie and sinister. The biting cold of Delhi winter was yet to set in, but for two youngsters—one male and one female—who had been lying by the roadside without a stitch of clothing on them for almost forty minutes, it was chilling to the marrow.

Raj Kumar and his partner Surender Singh, of EGIS Infra Management India Ltd, a firm charged with the maintenance of the national highway, drove slowly in their jeep in the left lane of the highway from Gurugram to Delhi. They were looking for stretches in disrepair that might need the attention of their superiors. As they crossed the U-turn under the Mahipalpur flyover, they heard cries of ‘bachao, bachao’ (help, help) from the left flank of the road. They were startled to see a young man and a young woman sitting naked, covered in blood, shivering and writhing in pain. They immediately stopped and called Rampal Singh in their company’s control room, informed him of what they had seen and requested him to call the police.

Rampal Singh lost no time in calling the Delhi Police control room (PCR) on the emergency telephone number, 100, which dispatched the nearest PCR van, Zulu 54, to the spot. With its shrieking siren and flashing emergency lights, the emergency response team reached the spot in no time. As Head Constable Ram Chander and his staff approached the site, they saw a motley crowd of bystanders surrounding the naked young couple on the ground, with no one making any attempt to help. The youngsters were bleeding profusely and were visibly in pain.

To be continued…..