A decaying witness to a brutal crime that left nation shocked

NEW DELHI: An unassuming, bare tract stands along the railway tracks that cut through southwest Delhi.

- Hemani Bhandari

The dry plot, known as local "Mela Ground," is sandwiched between Sagarpur colony and Kailashpuri. One corner is littered with mounds of crumbling 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.

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 crime—bus number DL IPC 0149—lies on the fringe of that East Sagarpur ground, a decaying witness to an incident that changed the 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.