South Delhi gangrape: Bus crossed 3 PCR vans

Whiteline was also being used to transport schoolchildren.

For more than an hour on Sunday night, a chartered bus drove through one of the busiest South Delhi stretches with a 23-year-old being tortured and raped inside by a group of men.

No one, not even the three PCR vans stationed on the way, noticed anything amiss. No one stopped the bus with the tinted windows and drawn curtains. And the bus was not required to stop anywhere, as the route it took — Munirka towards airport — is a signal-free stretch.

The victim, a paramedic student who had come to Delhi for an internship from Uttarakhand, is fighting for life at Safdarjung Hospital. Her friend, a 28-year-old software engineer with HCL, was also stripped and assaulted, police said. The two boarded the bus in Munirka and were thrown out of the bus in Mahipalpur.

As outrage mounted, police swung into action. Traffic police began probing whether the chartered bus was plying without permission and if police personnel failed to detect the violation.

Police sources said the Whiteline bus was also being used to transport students of two schools in Delhi and Noida.

As the woman and her friend were tortured inside between 9.15 pm and 10.20 pm, the bus crossed a PCR van at Rao Tula Ram Marg, one at Olaf Palme Marg and one near Mahipalpur flyover, a few meters from where the couple was dumped — the spots where police claim PCRs are usually stationed.

According to police, the bus started from old JNU campus, crossed Munirka (from where the two were picked up), Subroto Park and went towards NH-8. It then took a U-turn from under the flyover towards Delhi and reached Mahipalpur. The bus took two rounds on the 7-km stretch.

Transport rules state that chartered buses can operate only between specified destinations and are not permitted to pick up unscheduled passengers, like in this case.

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