Bharat Rakshak

Rape victim cremated in a rush and away from the public eye
Shubhomoy Sikdar


*
Policemen stand guard outside the crematorium as the last rites for the 23-year-old rape victim are performed, in New Delhi on Sunday.

The cremation of the young physiotherapy gang-rape victim was a low-key affair, with the government taking control and ensuring little public participation. Security in the area was beefed up as the woman’s mortal remains were consigned to the flames at Dwarka crematorium within hours of the arrival of the body from Singapore early this morning.

Though the body reached the crematorium around 5-45 a.m. and was put on the pyre by 6 a.m., the victim’s father lit it at around 7-30 a.m. as the family members protested against the police rushing them to get the cremation done before sunrise.

{Is this legitimate police function?}


The area was fortified with a large number of policemen and members of the Rapid Action Force in anti-riot gear guarding the area and keeping a close vigil. Deployment of security personnel had started on Saturday night.

The 23-year-old victim had breathed her last at a Singapore hospital on Saturday, after a 13-day battle for life following the brutal assault on her by six persons in a moving bus on December 16.

In a recognition of public outrage over the rape and death of the victim, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi were present at the Palam Technical Area of the Indira Gandhi International Airport when the body arrived by a special Air India aircraft around 3-30 a.m.

The two leaders interacted with the victim's parents who had accompanied the body.

A large number of policemen escorted the body to the victim’s residence and later to the crematorium. Several barricades were put by the police near the victim’s residence to prevent ordinary citizens from joining the mourning. The policemen asked the victim’s neighbours to stay away from her house where rituals were being performed. The restrictions continued after the body was taken to the crematorium.

The anger that has gripped the country following the incident resonated in the locality with neighbours joining the chorus demanding “strictest possible punishment” to the accused.

“When she left home the last time, little did her father know that she would return here as a corpse. It is not about a girl from our locality who has fallen prey to this barbaric act, it’s about the safety of women in general,” an emotional neighbour said.

The neighbour said his younger brother had tutored her while she was in school. “Because she was focussed, her father decided to sell his land and mortgage their house to arrange for her educational expenses.’’

Those present at the crematorium included mostly family members and relatives of the deceased. The electronic media was not present as the Broadcast Editors Association had asked news channels to refrain from covering the funeral.

Union Minister R.P.N. Singh, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Mahabal Mishra, MP, and Delhi BJP chief Vijender Gupta were among those present.

For a People’s Police from a Delhi tailwind
Prakash Singh
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AT LOGGERHEADS: The protesters need to understand that unless the functioning of the police is overhauled, the prevention, detection and investigation of crimes against women will continue to be poor. The picture shows confrontation at Rajpath on December 23, 2012.
PTI AT LOGGERHEADS: The protesters need to understand that unless the functioning of the police is overhauled, the prevention, detection and investigation of crimes against women will continue to be poor. The picture shows confrontation at Rajpath on December 23, 2012.
TOPICS
crime, law and justice police
politics government

Given the reluctance of our politicians to initiate police reforms despite judicial direction, the pressure of public opinion is perhaps the best weapon

The recent gang rape incident in Delhi would appear to have stirred the conscience of the nation. There have been demonstrations in Delhi and in several other towns of the country. The Delhi Police could not have imagined that an isolated incident of rape would snowball to such an extent and lead to a demand for the ouster of the police commissioner. The political class was also caught by surprise. Actually, what is happening in Delhi represents the cumulative dissatisfaction of people against poor governance of the country reflected, in the present context, in crimes against women.

The Delhi demonstrations bear a faint resemblance to the incidents in Tiananmen Square of China in 1989, where too the students came out into the streets against the government. The Chinese government crushed the student movement ruthlessly. Mercifully, the Government of India has used only tear gas and lathis to disperse the students. Our democracy, with all its flaws, gives much greater latitude to voices of dissent.

Three core issues

The protests have thrown up three important issues: the governance of Delhi, the safety of women and the need for improved policing. The Chief Minister wants control over the Delhi police, which is presently under the Ministry of Home Affairs. What needs to be done to give better safety and protection to women is another area of concern. Besides, what are the measures that need to be taken to revamp and restructure the police so that their performance meets the expectations of the people?

On September 22, 2006, the Supreme Court of India had given certain directions in view of the “urgent need for preservation and strengthening of Rule of Law.” It prescribed the setting up of three institutions in the states: a State Security Commission with a view to insulating police from extraneous pressures; a Police Establishment Board to give autonomy to the police hierarchy in matters of transfers and postings of junior officers; and a Police Complaints Authority to look into complaints of serious misconduct against policemen. The court also prescribed a procedure to ensure transparency in the selection of the Director General of Police and gave him a minimum tenure of two years. Officers performing operational duties in the field were also given a tenure of two years. The court further ordered that investigation and the law and order functions of the police should be separated to improve the quality of investigations. The Thomas Committee, which was set up to monitor the implementation of the court’s directions expressed its “dismay over the total indifference to the issue of reforms in the functioning of police being exhibited by the States.”

The States are reluctant to implement the Supreme Court’s directions because it would mean the executive losing their grip over the police, which they consider vital for their political survival. The Delhi Police Bill has yet to be given final shape. Actually, the expectation was that the Government of India would pass what would be a model Police Bill for Delhi and that the same would, with minor adjustments, be adopted by the other States. However, that did not happen. The Delhi Administration, it appears, is not in favour of giving police the kind of autonomy visualised by the apex court. The executive has become so used to lording it over the police that it cannot think of a situation where the police would have autonomy in taking important law and order decisions. It is like a drug addict being asked to give up narcotics.

We need police reforms not for the glory of the police but to ensure that the police uphold the rule of law and the Constitution of the country. At present, they are more bothered/concerned about the wishes and expectations of the political bosses, right or wrong, lawful or unlawful, rather than acting in the larger interests of society. The reductio ad absurdum of the situation is there for anyone to see. The police are not trusted and they do not inspire confidence.

It also needs to be emphasised that police reforms are absolutely essential if India is to emerge as a great power. Economic progress cannot be sustained if we are not able create a safe and secure environment. The democratic structure may also crumble if the police continue to feel inhibited in taking action against criminals, some of whom are entering the portals of democracy.

Apart from the reforms mandated by the Supreme Court, a whole range of other measures are also called for to improve the functioning of the police. There must be substantial augmentation in their strength, apart from filling up the existing nearly 4.20 lakh vacancies; infrastructure at police stations must improve in terms of vehicles, communications, equipment and forensic support; housing facilities should be better, and working hours need to be prescribed.

It is indeed one of the ironies of modern India that while we are preparing for a mission to the moon, and there has been: a revolution in information technology; vast improvements in rail and road networks across the country; a quantum leap in nuclear science, and India becoming one of the fastest growing economies, we are still — more than 65 years after independence — saddled with a colonial police with a feudal mindset. There are more than 20,000 police stations and posts across the length and breadth of the country, and their working impinges on the life of the common man from Srinagar to Kanyakumari and from Ahmedabad to Aizwal. It is a sad commentary on our Republic that we have not been able to transform the police into an instrument of service to the people.

Internal security

Looking at the larger picture, we need a motivated and effective police force to deal with the greatest internal security challenges confronting the country. These challenges are: the threat of international terrorism, the Maoist insurgency, and the continuing problems in the north-east and in Jammu & Kashmir. If we are to tackle these problems effectively, there is no getting away from having a professional police force, well trained and equipped, and committed to upholding the unity and integrity of the country. The police are the first responders in the event of any terrorist attack or Maoist violence, and they are also the backbone of our intelligence and investigation agencies.

Corruption has become a huge problem in the country. The responses to Anna Hazare’s agitation showed how disgusted and fed up people are. The anti-corruption and vigilance organisations at the State level and the Central Bureau of Investigation at the Central level are manned largely by police officers. Hence the further need to cleanse and reform the police.

Looking at the reluctance of the political class, how do we push forward the agenda of police reforms? The pressure of public opinion is perhaps the surest weapon. The protesters need to understand that unless the functioning of the police is overhauled, the prevention, detection and investigation of crimes against women would continue to be poor. National Crime Records Bureau statistics show that there has been a steady increase in crimes against women: 1,64,765 cases in 2006, 1,85,312 in 2007, 1,95,856 in 2008, 2,03,804 in 2009 and 2,13,585 in 2010. Out of these, in 2010 alone, there were 22,172 incidents of rape, the largest number being recorded in Madhya Pradesh. Public opinion must mobilise on the issue of police reforms. The media must also lend support to the campaign. Non-governmental organisations should also pitch in. The judiciary should wield the whip against defiant States. The Central Government should mount pressure on the States to accelerate the process of reforms in the police.

The future of India, it may be said without any exaggeration, is linked to the fate of police reforms in the country. Seen from all angles — the security of the common man, safety of women, survival of democracy, maintaining the trajectory of economic progress, and dealing with corruption or combating the major threats confronting the country – we have to have a reformed, restructured and revitalised police force, a People’s Police in place of the present Ruler’s Police.

(Prakash Singh, a recipient of the Padma Shri, has been campaigning for police reforms.)

India's grand rape-prevention scheme of outing and public shaming rapists before turning them over to angry vigilantes admittedly has some kinks that still need to be ironed out. For starters, it sounds like a plan concocted by a tyrannical sheriff in an Old West boomtown who's been too long in his cups. It also elides some of the more pernicious victim-blaming that still plagues rape investigations in rural India, where the so-called "two-finger test" is still a totally legit (as in, it serves as admissible evidence in a court of law) way to investigate rape.

On Sunday, Human Rights Watch released a report that highlights the many ways in which police and government officials in India have failed to take rape seriously. The "two-finger test," whereby, explains the Wall Street Journal, a doctor "inserts two fingers into a women's vagina to determine its laxity and whether the hymen is broken, signaling previous sexual activity," appears in Indian jurisprudence textbooks and is admissible as evidence in court in cases of rape.

That the test is still acceptable courtroom evidence, says the Human Rights Watch, is an extremely unfortunate fact because it helps further the belief that rape survivors are "loose women." It also only serves to further emphasize how drastically the culture of rape prevention and prosecution in India needs to change. In the wake of a brutal (and now deadly) gang rape in New Delhi, some of India's public officials have been intensely criticized for their seemingly lax attitudes towards rape, which some politicians seem to actually regard as consensual sex. The case of the 23-year-old woman who died Saturday from injuries sustained on Dec. 16 when she was raped and beaten with iron rods on a bus in New Delhi has sparked country-wide outrage at India's treatment of rape and rape victims.
Though Indian authorities, after emerging from a two-week-long torpor of seeming indecision, have responded with righteous ferocity by promising to charge six men with murder (which carries the death penalty), human rights critics say that India's rape woes (of the 24,206 rape cases in India in 2011, only about a quarter resulted in the convictions of alleged rapists) cannot be so easily glossed over. Said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch,For politicians, supporting the death penalty is an easy but ineffectual way out. It is much harder, but more effective, to revamp the response of police, doctors, forensic specialists, prosecutors, and judges to sexual violence. Survivors deserve an effective, coordinated response to sexual assault.Until lawmakers and law enforcement officials do the hard but necessary work of overhauling the way sexual assault is both investigated and perceived in India, an endemic culture of victim-blaming will frustrate the pursuit of real justice — for victims and rapists alike — in rape cases.

ramana wrote:Lilo< Your twitter feed on End Violence on Woman is doing a good job.
Now we need a web page/blog that gathers the information.

Lilo wrote:
They have from Telugu,Tamil,Kannada,hindi,gujarati,bangla etc. But currently we dont have a collection of "vernacular words" to parse these sources. But its doable.

“Meri bachchi ko mere paas rehne do, usey mujhse door mat karo (don’t take my daughter away from me, let her remain with me)” was the cry of the distraught mother as the body of her young daughter was being taken to the crematorium.

The mother of the 23-year-old gang-raped woman fainted several times in grief after the body was brought to their family home in Mahavir Enclave in southwest Delhi early Sunday morning. The mother was taken to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, where her condition is stated to be stable.

“As soon as the body was taken away for cremation, the mother collapsed,” Vimla, a neighbour, told IANS.

The body of the young woman, who became the focus of countrywide protests and prayers, was flown in from Singapore at 3.30 a.m. and taken to the family home at 4.25 a.m. It was kept there for about two hours before being taken to the crematorium in Dwarka Sector 19.

The mother was sobbing inconsolably over the body and fainted several times, said neighbours.

“When the body was being put in an ambulance to be taken to the crematorium at around 6.15 a.m., the mother pleaded, ‘Don’t touch my daughter’s body’, and fainted,” said a next-door neighbour. Family members and friends sprinkled water on her face to bring her back to consciousness.

“I don’t want to let my daughter go alone, please let her remain with me,” the grief-stricken mother pleaded again and again, before she fell unconscious.

She was taken to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital after her daughter was cremated around 7.30 a.m.

According to one of the neighbours, after the Dec 16 brutal gang-rape and torture of her daughter, the mother had hardly eaten any food, and her health had deteriorated. She has already been keeping unwell for the past few months, another neighbour told IANS.

Since Saturday evening, a large number of people, mostly neighbours, were assembling outside the family’s home to condole the torture victim’s death.

The house, an unplastered brick structure, comprises two small ordinary rooms, also unplastered. The house belongs to a relative, who stays in one of the rooms while the entire family of the young woman – parents and two brothers – stay in the other room. The family room has bare minimum furnishing. They have been staying there for the past two and a half years.

Many residents of Mahavir Enclave visited the house in a steady stream since morning to offer condolences and their support to the traumatised family. But, not finding the family members at home, as they were in hospital with the mother, the neighbours got restive and began shouting slogans demanding justice for the dead woman and punishment to the rapists.

“We want Justice”, “Hang the rapists!”, “Hate liquor that turns people into beasts”, were among the slogans that the people were shouting.

When the IANS correspondent was searching for the house and asked some residents the whereabouts, the neighbors said emphatically in unison: “She is our daughter.”

“Every house in this street belongs to her,” said Vimla.

According to Vimla, the family of the dead woman was “very poor”.

The parents had sold a plot of land nearby as well as land in their village in Ballia district of eastern Uttar Pradesh to fund their daughter’s education.

“Now her elder brother, who is preparing for his engineering entrance exams, has no hope to continue his studies. The family had depended on her future career to see them out of their poverty,” Vimla told IANS.

Ranvir Sirohi, another resident of Mahavir Enclave, told IANS that the victim’s father is a loader at the Delhi airport and has been “saving every penny to make his daughter a doctor”.

In order to see the dream fulfilled, the family did not care to shift to better accommodation, he said.

Now the dream lies shattered

rahulm
Post subject: Re: Demonstrations and Police Brutality in Delhi
PostPosted: 29 Dec 2012 11:30 am
Online
BRFite

Joined: 19 Jun 2000 06:01 am
Posts: 349
I feel absolutely gutted.

Hari Sheldon's one liner & VKS Singh's comments have summarised the situation very well.

In separate threads over a period of time TheoFidel or was it Bji? ( will have to check) has also highlighted the state of many women in this country.

The issues come down to a largely male dominated society, embedded disrespect and even absolute contempt for women, corruption in the police and ineffective (delayed is denied) law and order i.e social, political and legal layers.

Women are trained by households to become faithful sheep/cattle to serve father, brother, husbands and sons and any combination thereof over their lifetime. They spend their entire life seeking permission from one or many of the males in her family circle. This is proudly proclaimed to be our "Sanskriti" by the men and women are brainwashed enough to parrot this line. They are expected to and willingly accept the sole responsibility (Stockholm syndrome perhaps) of upholding this "sanskriti" at their very own self sacrificial altar of self respect and emancipation while the male goes scot free - e.g peeing (i.e exposing) himself in public places to wearing anything they want including stripped chaddis with all jewels in full public view while the women (50%) of our population clench their thighs and grit their teeth (due to lack of public conveniences) and wear full length clothes in the heat to protect their modesty and uphold this "Sanskriti"

When women are the victims of domestic violence/sexual abuse mostly they are encouraged firstly by family and then by others close to her to keep quiet - because her individuality, respect and justice are second somehow to the "name" of the family, clan, village in society. These are the "high" moral standards we have set for ourselves.

In the instances where the girl/family choose to go to the police they are humiliated & advised to settle and the girl made to feel like a whore/slut. This from a police force who is supposed to protect and serve and they do - just not the people who they are supposed to but their political masters.

When the girl is able to brave all of this and file an FIR, corruption will likely work against her with the police.

The structurally flawed legal system will add more indignity by dragging the case and most likely vanquish what remains of the girls self respect and pride by subversion of justice through corruption.

Women have been made and are fulfilling the role of being the objects for the male. It's the "Purush rajneeti" which is deeply ingrained in our society.

Any girl who steps outside this boundary is considered fair game. This is no different to the UPA's behaviour - they impose 144 to subjugate the public who steps out of line - the male dominated society will subject the women who challenge the status quo by stripping away firstly through "eve-teasing',then by violence and finally through rape to utter humiliation and to set an example for & a warning to others to not step out of line.

A French volunteer worker girl on a student assignment was humiliated in front of the whole office staff including I & bought to tears by a high priest of a very well established and highly regarded religious NGO where I was serving. Her crime - wearing a sleeveless T-Shirt. What lessons in spirituality, humanity etc can one expect from this Sri Sri? Is not this Sri Sri supposed to be above all and equanimous?

The poor girl later sobbing said to me that she has extensively travelled the world and worked in various NGO's but for the first time in her life she was judged in public and then made to feel like a whore.

You see she had stepped out of line and Sri Sri was upholding the high morals standards for the sake of the entire society and she had to be punished. Back in your box and never you dare to come out - that was the message.

He went a step further and never spoke or interacted with this poor girl for the rest of her 6 month internship. Take that - you deserve it - the man of God said.

And the public prostrates at the feet of this worthy. Comical or tragic?

All of this is largely tacitly accepted and even condoned by the silent majority of society as just justice and the way things are are. This has become so deeply ingrained that it resides in the individual sub-conscious and therefore & thence becomes a part of the social fabric. Over a period of time it becomes our identity i.e "sanskriti".

We specialise in majoring in minor things. The ship carrying 50% of our population is burning and we want to re-arrange the chairs on the deck.

At a national collective conscience we are more concerned with (false) morality (playboy bunnies should wear decent clothing) than with justice, governance, dowry and female infanticide. We will gladly hob nob with & respect corrupt people - even participate in this corruption but get on our high horse and ostracise a girl for wearing a mini skirt.

Collective hypocrisy. Tragic or a comedy? Talk about misplaced priorities.

India cannot be shinning just because its trial balance and general ledger look good.

I R2I'd and back packed through India for 2.5 years until October 2012 after which sadly I could not take it anymore and returned overseas. I refused to pay bribes for what is my right (I have documented some of my run ins in the Indian police thread) and been advised to (even by some BRF'ites) to comply, threatened by police, humiliated in public because I would not and did pay Rs. 50 for an FIR, Rs. 500 for a Police Clearance Certificate or Rs. 5,000 to register a property. These are real numbers.

People who participate (both givers and takers) are all the Jai Chands of our society who rip the social and legal fabric of this country to shreds because they are unable in their individual & collective myopia to look beyond their own narrow and parochial interests and then expect the system to work for them when they are in trouble. Running with the hares and hunting with the hounds leads to personal disaster somewhere down the line.

How many BRF'ities who talk against corruption on this forum have never paid a bribe - I wonder?

I supped with the high and mighty in public and private life. I also toured the remote villages of UP and Bihar for 10 months and met the men and women, rich, poor & destitute.

In all my interactions with government services, many private services and throughout my tour over 2.5 years through 4 corners of our country, at every opportunity - from being humiliated in public offices, assaulted by a goon in a train (in full view of the RPF) because I would not him pay him Rs. 20 for a seat in the general compartment, to being denied entry in hotels in Varanasi and Goa because I was "Indian", to being ignored in TAJ - Hyderabad (because I was wearing a dhoti the list goes on and on) I tried to console myself by telling myself that India is shinning.

In the end, after all of my experiences I was unable to re-concile this broad brush slogan at the coal face of my personal experiences when I stepped outside the high society, English speaking (with terrible false accents) crowd eating fake foreign food at real foreign prices.

The economic, social and physical state of women in the villages of UP, Bihar and even Maharashtra brought me down to earth very quickly. I saw this up close (I was involved in primary health care and education in remote villages approximately 12 months) and I was quite shocked. This deserves another thread.

What shocked me even more was the ingrained attitudes of men towards women even in our uber RAIE class and the uber RAIE women who behave like sheep. I did scratch the surface here and its not very nice in there including to my dismay among the CGO's and senior members of our armed forces.

People mostly receive a ritualistic (not even religious) education in our country. Everyone including goons, murderers & rapists without exception know to remove shoes when going into temples, where feet should not be pointed, which gods should be circumambulated clockwise and which only 3/4 clockwise. This is guaranteed across the population.


I was shocked at the lewd comments and harassment girls from a very young age suffer in Varanasi from boys (from "good" families) in colleges, buses, offices and roads. These are not exceptions. This is the norm.

Some of these boys will make it to the police, some will become judges and some lawyers and some even law makers. It would be naive to expect anything good will come out and because of them.\

Women of this country will have to own, lead and work for their own emancipation. It would be unwise for the women of this country (for their own good I should add) to leave such important and indeed their very life and death matters in the hands of the male of this country.

The Delhi gang rape girl went out to see a movie and was returning home in a bus. For this simple joy of life she was subjected to total humiliation, violence and had to die. No matter what our history, "sanskriti" and economic balance sheet if a young girl has to be brutally gang raped & then die for undertaking such a simple joy of life something is terribly wrong.

Somebody suggested earlier to hang the rapists. OK. Please also hang the police who let that bus on the road for a small hafta.At the very least slap a criminal case against him ( I believe corruption is a criminal offence in our country) For a selfish personal pecuniary gain of the police, a girl had to suffer the indignity of a brutal gang rape and pay with her life. I say hang this police wala first and then the rest.

For that we need good governance and that is another topic. But as somebody said earlier and I paraphrase - "Even God will not help ch***iyas" who elect such governance.

RIP whatever your name is. I cry for you.


Last edited by rahulm on 29 Dec 2012 12:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.

rahulm wrote:My impression is Mango man actually does not care about corruption - only about getting the job done and is prepared to bribe for this purpose.

Ethically and morally he see's nothing wrong in this and is currently incapable or if capable unwilling to appreciate the impact of his subversive behaviour on the society's psyche.

Value systems are topsy turvy.

People who care about all this are not mango abdul.

Sushupti wrote:Safdarjung doctors say flying "brain-dead" rape victim to S'pore not medical decision. Order came from govt

Doctors question move to shift Delhi gang-rape victim to Singapore

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 814404.cms

kmkraoind wrote:[
This is the house of BraveHeart, then how come Arundhathi Roy, Kancha Ilaiah and BBC journos, say the movement is unjustified, because she is from an affluent middle class family. I really wonder, weather they are really humans or some demonic spirits with bodies.
Regarding her house, its a small 2-room house, where landlord relative occupies one room and all the rest of family of 5 members stay in another room.

rahulm wrote:Country is becoming economically stronger but ethically worse. New money has instilled a swagger in people young and old which has brought about an air or arrogance and invincibility - I can get away with it - connections and money. I think its going to get worse not better.

VikramS wrote:https://twitter.com/shalini_mishtie/sta ... 9300330496

The minor accussed, who seems to have caused the most damage to the poor girl, and was the most brutal of the assailants, was known as Raju, from Baduan, UP.

As it turns out his real name is Md. Afroz.


...

Minor molested in Delhi bus was earlier raped by brother

Fresh facts have emerged in the case of a minor girl molested in a bus in New Delhi with police arresting her teenaged brother for allegedly raping her six months ago and molesting her thereafter.

The tragic story of the girl unfolded on Sunday, after the 16-year-old girl recorded her statement with police.

Her brother Nazakkat Ali (19) was arrested following her complaint.

The girl was molested on Saturday night allegedly by a conductor when she left her house following harassment by her family. The conductor Ranjit Singh was arrested in connection with the case, which comes close on the heels of the brutal gang-rape of a girl in a moving bus in south Delhi.

Police went to her house in west Delhi’s Khyala on Sunday, to record her statement during which she told investigators about her ordeal.

A senior police official said her father had married thrice and they were living with his third wife. She claimed that there were problems in the family.

“She also told us that her brother had raped her six months ago and was molesting her thereafter. We have arrested the boy,” the official said.

On Saturday night, the girl had left her house at around 9:30 p.m. and when the bus reached Mandi House at around 11 p.m., police personnel noticed the girl inside the bus alone crying.

A case of kidnapping was found registered about her at Khyala Police Station after her family approached police.

Keywords: Delhi, molestation, women abuse, Delhi bus molestation case, violence against women, Nazakkat Ali, rape cases, Mandi House

New Delhi, Dec 31: The mortal remains of Delhi's 23-year-old gangrape victim could have arrived 3 hours earlier, but the Centre wanted the body to be flown either to Kolkata or Varanasi, instead of Delhi, and the victim's family refused.

The victim's body reached Singapore airport at 5 pm, and lay there waiting for more than three hours, as the Centre and the victim's family differed on where to take the mortal remains.

The special Air India plane lay waiting at Singapore airport, though all clearances had been given to allow AI-380A flight to depart on priority.

Had the plane left on time, it would have arrived in Delhi in the night, but the government wanted to avoid chaos in Delhi.

The victim's family insisted on going to Delhi for the last rites, Mumbai Mirror reported, and finally the plan departed at around 10 pm Singapore time. The Centre heaved a sigh of relief, as the plane would arrive in Delhi at the unearthly hour of 4 am, when there was no chance of protests.

In foggy weather, the plane landed, the Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were present at the airport, and the body was rushed to the victim's residence, where after religious rites were carried out, it was cremated in Dwarka, even before the veil of fog had lifted over Delhi, a time when most of the Delhiites were deep in slumber.