The Delhi police on Friday night decided to register a case against Zee News after the channel aired an interview with the male friend of a Delhi girl who was gangraped in New Delhi three weeks ago, a crime to which he is the lone witness.
In the interview, the person was severely critical of the police response and indifference of the public while he and the deceased girl lay on the road after being thrown out of the bus.
He said after they had been thrown off the bus without their clothes, they had tried to stop people passing by but no one stopped about for 25 minutes.
Three police control room vans arrived at the scene after about 45 minutes, but wasted time in deciding under which police station's jurisdiction the case fell, he said. The person interviewed by the channel was with the 23-year-old medical student when they boarded a bus around 9 pm in South Delhi's Munirka area after watching a movie in a cinema hall on December 16.
The case will be filed under Section 228 (A) of the Indian Penal Code, which pertains to disclosure of identity of victim of certain offences, including rape, Delhi police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said.
The girl was gangraped and brutally assaulted by six men in the bus who also attacked her friend before dumping them on the road. The boy was also badly injured.
The girl was later taken by a police patrol to a government hospital where she battled for life for several days before being flown to Singapore in an air ambulance for specialised treatment. However, she passed away on December 29.
The horrendous crime led to widespread public protests in several parts of the country and vocal demands for toughening laws against rape.
The police had chargesheeted five men, including the driver of the bus and his brother, in the case and accused them of various crimes like murder, attempt to murder, gangrape, kidnapping and unnatural offences.
