'I carried her bleeding body: Police would not touch her'

THE suffering of a university student and her male friend who were brutally attacked aboard a bus in India's capital did not end after the woman was gang-raped and both were savagely beaten for two-and-a-half hours.

Dumped naked on a roadside, the pair encountered shocking apathy as passers-by offered only cursory looks and the police debated jurisdiction for 30 minutes before taking them to a hospital, where the man received no treatment as he sat without clothes on the floor, he recounted in a television interview.

The boyfriend has spoken for the first time about the attack, describing how he had to carry the young woman's bleeding body into the police van himself, because none of the officers wanted to touch her.

On the night of the attack, the woman and her companion had just finished watching the movie Life of Pi at a mall and were looking for a ride home.

An auto-rickshaw driver declined to take them, so they boarded the private bus with the six assailants inside, he told the Indian TV station Zee News.

Authorities have not named the man because of the sensitivity of the case. Zee News also declined to give his name, although it did show his face during the interview.

The man has a broken leg and was sitting in a wheelchair during the interview.

The 28-year-old said no one wanted to help them as they lay naked and bleeding in the road and the police took two hours to take them to hospital.

His 23-year-old girlfriend was repeatedly raped and abused with an iron bar during their ordeal aboard a bus as it cruised around Delhi's streets.

She died in a hospital in Singapore last weekend, 13 days after the attack.

The case has shocked India and provoked waves of public outrage at a police and justice system that routinely fails the victims of sexual assault. The latest details will only increase pressure for much-needed reform.

The boyfriend said the gang of men aboard the bus - which was fitted with curtains and tinted windows - had definitely planned their crime.

He and his girlfriend did their best to fight off the attackers after being lured aboard.

"I beat up three of them, but then the rest brought an iron rod and hit me. Before I fell unconscious, they took my friend away," he said. "From where we boarded the bus, they moved around for nearly two-and-a-half hours. We were shouting, trying to make people hear us, but they switched off the lights."

The men took away their cellphones and stripped the couple naked in an attempt to remove any evidence, he added, before they were dumped in the road.

Auto-rickshaws, cars and bikes slowed as they passed the couple, but no one stopped for 25 minutes.

"Nobody from the public helped us. People were probably afraid that, if they helped us, they would become witnesses to the crime and be asked to come to police stations and courts."

Eventually, three police vans arrived, but officers argued among themselves about which police station was responsible, wasting more time as the couple lay naked in the road. It took two hours to get to hospital.

"My friend was bleeding profusely. But instead of taking us to a nearby hospital, they took us to a faraway hospital."

At the hospital, staff were reluctant to help and the man said he was forced to borrow a cellphone from a stranger. Doctors did not begin treatment until his relations arrived, he added.

"Even at the hospital we were made to wait and I had to literally beg for clothes.

"I cannot tell you what I feel when I think of it. I shiver in pain," he said in a second interview with a news agency on Friday, in which he explained that the couple only took the bus because they were running late.

Five men have been charged with rape, murder and a string of other offences. They were due to be appointed lawyers during a court hearing this weekend.

The police have asked for a medical test to determine the age of a sixth suspect, who is thought to be 17.

The victim's interview is certain to turn the spotlight on Delhi's emergency services.

Protesters have already demanded tougher laws to punish rapists and an end to a culture in which many rapes go unreported and police officers frequently fail to pursue cases, often placing the blame on the victim.

As part of its response, India has already announced plans to recruit more female police officers in its capital.

Sushil Kumar Shinde, the home minister, said Delhi's 166 police stations would have policewomen available around the clock.

"I have signed the file for appointing two women sub-inspectors and seven women constables in every police station in Delhi," he said.

Meanwhile, Indian police said they had filed a case against the cable news channel for airing the interview with the boyfriend.

A criminal case was registered late on Friday against the Zee News channel over the footage, which police said would lead to the identification of the victim, which is in breach of a law entitling her to anonymity.

Indian law prohibits the disclosure of the identity of victims in rape cases and the police have opened an investigation into the TV station for broadcasting the interview.

Violators of the law can face up to two years in prison and a fine.