delhi gang rape :medical student battles for life,3 accused held

 In a new low for a city already notorious as India's rape capital, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was left battling for her lifeafter being brutally beaten up and raped by at least five drunken men in a private bus which was audaciously driven around south Delhi localities on Sunday night even as the crime was being committed inside.

The unconscious victim and her male friend, who too was badly beaten, were stripped and thrown off near the Mahipalpur flyover on NH-8 after being assaulted for almost an hour. They were picked up around 9.15pm, a time when many Delhiites are still out in the city.

The woman is on ventilator support, doctors at Safdarjung Hospital said. On Monday, she underwent a four-hour surgery. Doctors said her intestines had ruptured and she had genital injuries. Her friend, a 27-year-old engineer who was preparing to take the civil services exam, however, helped the police in preparing sketches of the accused.

Late on Monday, police arrested one of alleged rapists, Ram Singh, a resident of R K Puram Sector 3. Singh was the driver of the bus but on Sunday had let his brother, Mukesh, drive, police said. Singh has reportedly given cops the names of the six other men in the bus on Sunday night. Mukesh and another accused, identified as Kalu, too were nabbed late at night. All three lived in Ravidas Camp slums at sector 3, R K Puram.