'I hate this...' scrawled on bus in which Nirbhaya was gangraped; decaying in dump yard

Shards of broken glasses from smashed window panes, rotting seats and a state of decay, material and moral, describe the current condition of the bus in which a group of men had assaulted and raped Nirbhaya on the fateful night of December 16 over seven years ago. The white line bus, on the day of the execution of four convicts in the horrific case on Friday, lay junked in a dump yard in Sagarpur in west Delhi, with a graffiti 'I hate ths bus' scrawled on the front portion.

The barren dump yard, which wore a ghostly look with corroding automobiles spread all around, with some children playing cricket and 'gulli-danda', is infamous now because of this vehicle, which few locals call as the "Nirbhaya wala rape bus". Practically all window panes lay shattered, including the ones in the driver's cabin, the body of the bus twisted and soiled, wearing a wraithlike appearance, triggering memories of the savage assault on the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern in the empty moving bus who came to be known world over as 'Nirbhaya', the fearless one.

The front portion bears 'Yadav Travels' on top with in a huge font, with 'Shubh Ohm Labh' painted on top of the engine cover and 'Bhagya Laxmi' at the bottom. The decaying miasma and a disturbing silence prevails inside the rotting bus. The horrific gang rape and murder of the young woman had sent shockwave across the country and triggered nationwide protests and a global public outcry. The four men convicted in the case were hanged in the darkness of pre-dawn, ending a terrifying chapter in India's long history of sexual assault that had seared the nation's soul.

The woman, who succumbed to injuries as a result of the brutal assault, was waiting with her male friend at the Munirka bus stand. The white bus with yellow and green stripes came near them with a young boy shouting out for passengers going towards Dwarka and Palam Mod. They boarded the bus but little did she know, it would turn out to be her last bus journey and one that would haunt the city forever.

Inside the bus, her male friend was attacked while the woman was brutally gangraped by six men. On Friday, its faded seats were covered in thick dust, a portion of its back side, still lowered, where the woman was brutalised, evoking the eerie imageries of the terrifying incident that made women world over unite in agony and seek justice for her.

Tracing the bus was the first step in the investigation. One of the investigating teams woke up Delhi Transport Department officials in the early hours to get details of all white buses registered with them, former Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar has written in his book 'Khaki Files'. Soon, the police had the details of 320 white buses. Their search was further streamlined after some other teams scanned the CCTV footage from all hotels and guest houses on the national highway, before zeroing in on the actual bus.

The white bus, in many ways became a symbol of sexual oppression, and according to reports, many people wanted to vandalise or torch it in anger. However, it was saved for forensic evidence gathering and later parked near the Thyagraj Stadium in south Delhi before finding its way to Sagarpur dump yard, where the bus may not find redemption but hope of the Nirbhaya's mother is that society's moral fabric can be salvaged so that such incidents never happen again.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)