Victim shouldn’t have fought back - Delhi R@pist

In 2012 an Indian student was violently r@ped on a moving bus in Delhi and died of horrific internal injuries. Leslee Udwin spoke to one of the r@pists on death row while spending two years making a film about the case. She came away shocked by India’s treatment of women – but inspired by those seeking change.

The horrifying details of the r@pe had led me to expect deranged monsters. Psychopaths. The truth was far more chilling. These were ordinary, apparently normal and certainly unremarkable men.

On 16 December 2012, the 23-year-old woman had been to see a film, the Life of Pi, with a male friend. At 8.30pm they boarded an off-duty bus, with six men on board, five adults and a juvenile. The men beat the friend and each r@ped the woman in turn, before assaulting her viciously with an iron instrument.

Mukesh Singh, the driver of the bus, described to me every detail of what happened during and after the incident. While prosecutors say the men took turns to drive the bus, and all took part in the r@pe, Singh says he stayed at the wheel throughout.

Along with three of the other attackers, Singh is now appealing against his death sentence. In 16 hours of interviews, Singh showed no remorse and kept expressing bewilderment that such a fuss was being made about this rape, when everyone was at it.

“A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy,” he said.

Mukesh Singh is one of five convicted of the crime – his brother Ram died in prison before the trial

“Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20% of girls are good.”

People “had a right to teach them a lesson” he suggested – and he said the woman should have put up with it.

“When being r@ped, she shouldn’t fight back. She should just be silent and allow the r@pe. Then they’d have dropped her off after ‘doing her’, and only hit the boy,” he said.

Chillingly, he went on: “The death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls. Now when they r@pe, they won’t leave the girl like we did. They will kill her. Before, they would r@pe and say, ‘Leave her, she won’t tell anyone.’ Now when they r@pe, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl. Death.”

I had the long and shocking list of injuries the young woman had sustained, read out to him. I tried, really hard, to search for a glimmer of regret. There was none

culled from BBC