Night of shame continues……

The police team dispersed the crowd, brought a bottle of water and two bed sheets from a nearby hotel for the couple and quickly covered them to save them from the cold and the voyeuristic gaze of the onlookers.

The police team rushed the severely injured couple to Safdarjung Hospital, which was about 10 kilometres away. En route, the injured, despite being in a state of shock, narrated snatches of their nightmarish ordeal to Ram Chander, a summary of which he passed on to the central PCR.

On arrival at the hospital, the male victim, by then identified as Awindra Pandey (aged twenty-eight), was admitted to the casualty section of the hospital. The female victim, Nirbhaya (a name given to protect the identity of the girl and universally accepted) (aged twenty-three), was taken to the gynaecology department as her private parts were bleeding profusely.

The PCR had by then informed DCP Chhaya Sharma of the incident. Realizing the gravity of the situation, she rushed to the hospital. Dr Sachin Bajaj, who was treating Awindra, had already heard from his patient the details of the ordeal the victims had been through. In brief they were as follows:

Awindra, an engineer, and his girlfriend Nirbhaya, a physiotherapy intern, had gone to the Select City Walk mall in Saket in south Delhi to watch the movie Life of Pi. After the show they exited the mall at around 8.30 p.m. Unable to get an autorickshaw to Dwarka, where they lived, they took one to the Munirka bus stand from where they hoped to get a bus that would take them to their destination.

To be continued…..