Nirbhaya's surgeon recalls the horror, hails apex court's verdict

"I pray to God every day that I never have to see such a case again," said Dr Sunil Jain, 51, who was the Chief Operating Surgeon of the team that operated on Nirbhaya, victim of the horrific December 16 gang rape that shook the nation five years ago.

While the entire nation hailed the verdict, Dr Jain was forced to recall the deeply disturbing incident. Practicing surgery since 1981, he had never encountered such brutality before.

"This was one of the most barbaric cases ever. When she came to us, we found that there was nothing inside her body. It took us five minutes to understand what had happened. All her body parts were damaged. Those people damaged her private parts, pulled out her intestines, and destroyed her face," Dr Jain told DNA.

Nirbhaya succumbed 13 days after sustaining these horrendous injuries. Doctors who treated her at the time said they had not expected her to survive for this long. In her fifth surgery, the doctors had to remove most of her intestines. But the girl was strong-willed and survived for nearly two weeks.

"I spoke to one of the accused and asked him why he did this. He gave me a shocking reply. He said the girl had resisted and abused him, so, he went mad," Dr Jain said.

Content with the SC's decision, Dr Jain said anything less would have been an insult to the departed soul. "Those people did something that no sane person can do. If the court had given any lesser sentence to these people, it would not have been justified," he said.