India mourns Delhi rape victim

By C. J. Refsland on December 29, 2012 • ( 1 )

The NDTV network ran a ticker-tape headline RIP India’s Daughter while the Times Now channel headlined the news Braveheart Passes Away.

Some Indian medics had criticised the decision to move her.

“Her family and officials from the High Commission of India were by her side.”

“It was was very trying for the family. The girl of course was unconscious… I must say they (the family) bore the entire process with a great deal of fortitude and a great deal of courage.”

The body was taken to a morgue, and Raghavan said arrangements were being made for it to be returned to India in line with the family’s wishes.

The decision to fly her out of India by air ambulance was taken at a meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet on Wednesday and the government had promised to pay all her medical bills.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the government’s only concern was to ensure the victim received “the best treatment possible”.

But Indian newspapers suggested the authorities, who have struggled to contain the nationwide protests over the attack, were keen to have her transferred out of the country.

An unnamed doctor who was part of a team of experts consulted about the transfer told The Hindu newspaper they had only been asked whether it was safe to move her and not whether it was the best course of action.

“The question was not whether there were any deficiencies in treatment that would be met by moving her … She was being given the best possible care,” the doctor was quoted as saying.

Samiran Nundy, chairman of the organ transplant and gastro-surgery department of Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, told the paper the transfer made little sense.

“I just can’t understand why a critically ill patient with infection in blood and body, high grade fever and on the ventilator is being transferred,” he said.

Singh has ordered an official inquiry into the gang-rape and new laws to protect women as well as stiffer penalties for the worst sex crimes.

And he said Delhi police would soon launch a drive to recruit more female officers as a confidence-building measure.

via India mourns Delhi rape victim | The Australian.