NEW DELHI: After nearly two weeks of watching their daughter fight a losing battle for her life, family members of the gang-rape victim had less than four hours to attend to VVIPs and arrange for her final rites.
They arrived at IGI Airport with her body at 3.30 am and by 7.30 am the last rites were completed.
Half-an-hour was spent meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi at the airport and another 30 minutes to rush the body home in a cavalcade of police vans.
Between 4.30 am and 6.30 am, the parents met their relatives at home and made arrangements for the last rites. The funeral procession of the braveheart was restricted to a distance as long as only five houses.
The mother of the 23-year-old woman fainted several times after the body was brought to their family home. "Meri bachchi ko mere paas rehne do, usey mujhse door mat karo (don't take my daughter away from me, let her remain with me)," cried out the distraught mother as the body of her young daughter was being taken to the crematorium.
The family was asked to rush to the crematorium in an ambulance after that and the relatives and neighbours were packed into two mini vans.
At 6.45 am, when the body reached the crematorium, it was dark. The pyre was prepared in torchlight and with the help of searchlights carried by the policemen.
The Congress MP from the area, Mahabal Mishra, and his supporters could be seen 'helping' the parents in arranging things for the last rites like the wood and even calling in the mourners, which included union minister of state for home affairs R P N Singh and chief minister Sheila Dikshit among others.
The funeral pyre was lit at 7.30 am by the victim's father. "I have lost everything I had. My daughter..," the bereaved father cried. The victim's younger brother was inconsolable.
State BJP president Vijender Gupta, Matiala councillor Rajesh Gehlot and BJP leader Jagdish Mukhi also paid a brief visit to the bereaved parents.
The crematorium was guarded by over 500 policemen, including BSF jawans. Almost all senior police officers from the area, including DCP, South, Chhaya Sharma, Joint CP, South-West, Vivek Gogia, and DCP airport J S Deswal, were present at the venue while the last rites were being performed.
"We did know that the deceased was the one we were hearing about on news channels. Her family had told everyone that she met with an accident. But now everyone knows thanks to heavy police deployment in the area and the visits by VVIPs. Last night, some policemen had come to the locality to put up barricades around 8 am and they also told us not to allow any mediaperson into the home for shooting videos," said a neighbour.
The police officers, who did not want to be named, justified the deployment, saying they did not want to take any chances as there were fears of some mischief-makers trying to incite violence.
Don't take my daughter away from me, let her remain with me: Nirbhaya's mother
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Don't take my daughter away from me, let her remain with me: Nirbhaya's mother
