Bus driver tried to run her over, friend pulled her away, say police

The questioning of the men arrested for the gangrape and torture of a 23-year-old woman on board a bus has revealed that Mukesh, the man at the wheel, tried to run her over after she was dumped by the roadside in Mahipalpur in south-west Delhi on the night of December 16.

Police sources said the woman was saved by her friend who too was badly beaten and thrown out of the bus with her. The woman died in a Singapore hospital on December 29, prompting police to press murder charges against the arrested men.

The woman and her friend were stripped and thrown out of the bus. Her friend pulled her away when he saw the bus reversing to run her over, the sources said.

It is learnt that the juvenile among the six arrested was the first to taunt her friend, asking him where he was headed so late at night with a woman. He attacked her friend and the others joined in, kicking and hitting him with a rod.

To save himself from the blows, the friend crawled under the seats. The five accused got together and dragged him out. To save her friend, the woman fought back and bit three accused, the sources said. The bite marks are mentioned in the medico-legal case report. Hit with a rod, her friend became unconscious and the men moved towards the woman, the sources said.

The police have detailed the sequence of events in a draft chargesheet which has been sent to senior officers for final approval.

Two men traced by the police and added to the list of witnesses are bus cleaners in Noida. They are learnt to have told police that Ram Singh brought the bus to Noida to wash away blood stains. While he was washing the bus, the cleaners claimed to have spotted blood stains.

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