Delhi 2012 gang-rape: A decaying witness to a crime that left India shocked

Bus number DL 1PC 0149 – lies on the fringe of that East Sagarpur ground, a decaying witness to an incident that changed the national capital

An unassuming, bare tract stands along the railway tracks that cut through southwest Delhi. The dry plot, known as the local “Mela Ground” is sandwiched between Sagarpur colony and Kailashpuri. One corner is littered with mounds of crumblings vehicles, their shells wilting under the unfettered sun. In this mass of rust stands a bus – a ubiquitous white vehicle, with the words “Yadav” plastered on its side. It was last driven on December 16, 2012.

The bus in which the 22-year-old paramedical student was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on December 16, 2012, in Delhi. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

Its final passengers were a 22-year-old paramedical student and her friend. That night, 12 years ago, six men raped the woman and assaulted the man on the bus, in a heinous crime that stunned India, caused raucous protests across the country and led to sweeping changes in laws safeguarding women.

And where Delhi still bears the scars of that brutal night, the scene of the crime – bus number DL 1PC 0149 – lies on the fringe of that East Sagarpur ground, a decaying witness to an incident that changed the national capital.

“People assume the scene of the crime was the place where the woman’s body was dumped, but the real scene of the crime was the moving bus,” Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Chhaya Sharma has said.

The woman was admitted to Safdarjung hospital on December 16. Police identified the accused - bus driver Ram Singh, his brother Mukesh Singh, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta the same day. The next day, all four were arrested. On December 21, the fifth accused, a minor, was arrested from Anand Vihar bus terminal in Delhi. The sixth suspect, Akshay Thakur, was arrested from Aurangabad in Bihar on December 22.

The woman died in a hospital in Singapore on December 26.

While the trial was underway, Mukesh Singh died by suicide inside Tihar jail on March 11.

The minor was released on in December 2015,after serving the maximum term of threeyears permissible for juveniles. The four men were hanged on March 20, 2020.

By the wayside

Until a few years ago, interest in the bus was rife. Police teams guarded the case property in FIR number 413/2012 at the Vasant Vihar police station around the clock to keep people from vandalising it.

That intrigue has now waned. The bus, said local residents, used to only interest “drug addicts”, who, they said, used it as a shelter to abuse drugs and sleep in.

But “it’s not used as often anymore because it’s been pushed further to the side and the entry has been blocked by another car,” said Ramesh Kumar, a resident of east Sagarpur who was playing cards at the ground when HT visited the spot.

Its interiors have largely been stripped bare. A handful of its seats are covered in red. Most others have been snapped off their hinges and strewn around the bus.

“Welcome”, says a sticker plastered behind the driver’s cabin. “No smoking”, says another.

Case property

However, even as the case has been disposed of, its owner is yet to claim the bus, said a senior Delhi Police officer.

“A vehicle, if involved in a crime, becomes case property. But after the case is concluded, the owner of the property can approach the court to reclaim it back,” said the officer.

“If the owner doesn’t approach the court, police try to contact them to seek their response on whether they wish to claim it. If the owner refuses or is untraceable, police approach the court to seek permission to dispose of it,” added the officer.

“The owner has not claimed it and we are waiting for them to let us know if they wish to claim it. We have reached out to the owner to seek his response,” said a second officer.

If the owner refuses to claim it, the officer said, police will seek permission to auction it, unless court orders that it be “disposed of in a certain manner”.

A group of girls, aged about four and five, wearing worn-out sweaters played in the ground—close to the bus— oblivious to what where they were. “These little ones don’t have any idea about this bus and what happened in here. It has been here for years. Some know, some don’t. We are happy that the men were given strict punishment. It’s time they junk this bus too,” said Rita Devi, 45, a resident.