Delhi gang-rape: Fifth accused detained, girl still critical

Faced with widespread outrage over the brutal rape and assault of a young paramedical student, government on Wednesday announced a slew of measures to instil confidence among people even as a fifth person was detained in Bihar while another accused said "hang me".

Taking suo motu cognisance of the gang-rape of the 23-year-old girl in a moving bus in Delhi on Sunday night, the Delhi High Court pulled up the city police asking how the offence remained undetected.

The girl, admitted to the Safdurjung Hospital, continued to remain in a critical condition.

As indignation mounted, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday described the incident as "very upsetting". He directed Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde to ensure that culprits are brought to book and such incidents are not repeated.

"It's a heinous crime...it is very upsetting," he said.

In Parliament, Shinde said that there will be an immediate crackdown on buses having tinted glass and heavy curtains. They shall be impounded immediately, if they do not remove them.

All buses will be asked to keep their lights on while plying at night in Delhi and these must be parked with their owners and not their drivers, Shinde told Rajya Sabha.

Police detained Akshay Thakur, one of the six accused, from Aurangabad in Bihar and he is being brought to Delhi.

Three of the four people already arrested in the case were produced before a court which sent two of them — Vinay Sharma, an assistant gym instructor, and Pawan Gupta, a fruit seller — to four-day police custody and Mukesh, the brother of driver Ram Singh who was also arrested, to 14-day judicial custody for undergoing Test Identification Parade.

Vinay and Pawan, however, have refused to undergo TIP.

When the judge asked whether they would volunteer to undergo TIP and if not why, Vinay said, "I had beaten up the boy but did nothing with the girl" and went on to say "mujhe faansi de do (hang me)", while Pawan told the court, "I do not want to undergo TIP as I have committed a heinous act".