Delhi gangrape: Victim’s friend appears on TV; slams police, ‘apathetic’ public

Sudhir Chaudhary, who interviewed the victim's friend, is currently on bail after having spent nearly three weeks in police and judicial custody after he was arrested in November 2012 for allegedly demanding Rs 100 crore from Jindal Steel & Power Ltd in return for stopping a series of negative reports about the company. The editor of Zee Business, Samir Ahluwalia, too was arrested for the alleged extortion bid.

The victim's friend told Zee News that the incident continued to haunt him. "I blame myself for ever going there, for ever taking that bus.

I keep thinking I should have waited for an auto longer, maybe the next auto would have agreed to go... My only regret is that I could not save my friend that night," he told Zee News.

The victim's friend told Chaudhary that they had tried to hire an auto-rickshaw from the mall where they had gone. "There were lots of autos, but they either refused or said they wouldn't go by the meter. Finally one auto agreed to take us to the bus stop where we boarded the bus," he said.

The friend said he had been "shocked" to hear that the victim had had to give her statement twice. "I was with her the evening her statement was first recorded, to support her. She described the incident in great detail, even though she was coughing while trying to speak. The doctors told her to take a break, but she said she wanted to complete the statement. I was shocked when I heard that the SDM had said that the statement was taken under pressure," he said.

The friend said that the victim had told the magistrate that the culprits should be burnt alive. "I heard her tell the SDM to burn them alive instead of hanging them," he said in the interview.

... contd.

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