The male friend of Girl who was tortured and raped in a running bus, has identified one of the accused as the rapist during a test identification parade (TIP) held in Tihar Jail.
Mukesh, a driver-cum cleaner and brother of Ram Singh, one of the co-accused of the gang-rape case, was identified as the rapist by the 28-year-old man, who was also beaten up by the attackers.
A senior police officer said, “The man identified Mukesh as one of the rapists and told police that the accused was one of those who raped and brutally beat up his friend.”
After confessing his crime before Saket court Wednesday, Mukesh had agreed to undergo an identification parade – in which an alleged offender is brought before witnesses and victims. The court had fixed the identification exercise for Thursday.
Mukesh, Vinay Sharma, 20, an assistant gym instructor, and Pawan Gupta, 19, a fruit seller, were presented in the Saket court Wednesday.
Sharma told the court that he had beaten up the gang-rape victim’s male friend but did nothing with the girl and told Metropolitan Magistrate Sandeep Garg: “Hang me!”
According to him, “I have committed a horrible crime. I had beaten up the boy. I should be hanged.”
Gupta also had admitted to having “wronged” the woman but did not admit to raping her.
Metropolitan Magistrate Namrita Agarwal had sent Gupta and Sharma to four days’ police custody. Mukesh was sent to Tihar Jail on 14 days’ custody.
Gupta had told the court that he did not want to undergo the identification exercise as he had committed a “horrible act”.
Bus driver Ram Singh, who was Tuesday sent to police remand till Dec 23, had refused to undergo the identification parade.
The savage rape and torture occurred Sunday night when the woman and her male friend boarded a private bus, used for ferrying school children, in south Delhi after watching a movie.
The woman, a physiotherapy student, who hails from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, is on ventilator and battling for life in Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi.
