Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The victim's friend, who witnessed the attack, speaks to Zee News 
 
 The friend of a woman who died after being raped on a bus in Delhi has given his first interview since the incident. 
 
 The man, who has not been named, told Zee News how he and the victim had boarded the bus and paid a fare, before he was beaten unconscious by men on board, who then attacked her. 
 
 He also criticised police for their slow response to the attack. 
 
 The woman, 23, died of her injuries last weekend, and five men are due to stand trial for her murder and rape. 
 
 The five could face the death penalty if they are convicted. A sixth suspect is expected to be tried in a juvenile court. 
 
 A special fast-track court set up to deal with the case of the five suspects is expected to sit on Saturday. 
 
 Meanwhile. police have opened an investigation into whether Zee News broke broadcasting laws relating to disclosure of the victim's identity. 
 
 Police 'argued' 
 
 The 28-year-old friend said he and the rape victim had boarded the bus after a trip to the cinema and after failing to flag down an auto-rickshaw. 
 
 He said the bus had tinted windows, and that he believed the group of men had laid a trap for them. 
 
 While education may over time promote gender equality and help change mindsets, in my view, legal literacy is the need of the hour Priya Hingorani, Supreme Court advocate Viewpoints: What next after India rape outcry? 
 
 "We tried to resist them. Even my friend fought with them, she tried to save me," he said. 
 
 "She tried to dial the police control room number 100, but the accused snatched her mobile away. 
 
 "I tried to fight against the men but later I begged them again and again to leave her." 
 
 He confirmed earlier reports that the assailants had thrown them off the bus and tried to run them over. 
 
 The friend said he had tried to get help from passers-by and motorists. 
 
 "They slowed down, looked at our naked bodies and left," he said. 
 
 And he also criticised the authorities, accusing them of being slow to arrive, then arguing over jurisdiction, and eventually taking them to the wrong hospital. 
 
 "My friend was bleeding profusely. But instead of taking us to a nearby hospital, they [police] took us to a hospital that was far away," he said. 
 
 Delhi Police on Saturday denied its officers were late in arriving. A statement said the first vehicle had arrived within four minutes of the distress call, left the scene with the victims within another three minutes and reached Safdarjung Hospital within another 24. 
 
 Meanwhile, police say they are investigating Zee News because Indian law bans the disclosure of the identity of rape victims. The victim's friend was not named but his face was shown. 
 
 Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told AFP news agency that a case had been filed against the broadcaster. 
 
 A new fast-track court inaugurated this week to handle the case is expected to hold a hearing on Saturday. 
 
 Five suspects have been charged with murder, rape and kidnapping. 
 
 The case has caused a national outcry, and there have been frequent protests calling for greater protection for women. 
 
 Earlier, India's top security officials held a meeting to discuss possible reforms. 
 
 They have promised to recruit more women to the police force, and supply women staff to every police station in Delhi. ||||| Outrage as boyfriend of Delhi rape victim speaks 
 
 NEW DELHI — Claims of police incompetence and public apathy stirred fresh outrage on Saturday in the case of a New Delhi gang-rape victim after her boyfriend recounted witnessing the horrific crime for the first time. 
 
 The new wave of anger came as a district court in south Delhi admitted charges against five suspects, who have been ordered to appear there together for the first time on Monday. 
 
 In addition to rape, kidnap and robbery, they face a murder charge and possibly the death penalty after the 23-year-old victim died last weekend from her injuries, including internal wounds caused by an iron bar. 
 
 Her boyfriend was also injured as he tried to prevent the assault which took place on a moving bus on December 16, stirring violent protests and a bout of soul-searching on the treatment of women and rising sex crime in India. 
 
 "The cruelty I saw should not be seen ever," the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told AFP as he described the savagery of the assault which started after the couple were lured onto the bus after watching a film together. 
 
 Speaking to AFP and an Indian news channel, he said passers-by ignored the naked and bloodied couple for 30 minutes after they were thrown out of the bus and police then wasted more time arguing over who had jurisdiction. 
 
 "A passer-by found us (after the attack), but he did not even give my friend his jacket," he told AFP in the interview, which also raised questions about the medical treatment given to the woman at a government hospital. 
 
 Speaking to the Hindi-language Zee News channel, he said it took 90 minutes for the injured pair to reach hospital because passers-by ignored their pleas for help, and police were late to arrive and then needlessly delayed. 
 
 "They could have taken us to hospital, given us clothes in that crucial one-and-a-half hours. For a dying person every minute is important," he told the channel. 
 
 Facing angry criticism on the streets, where protests have raged over the last three weeks against the lack of safety in the Indian capital, the police issued a hasty rebuttal. 
 
 A senior officer from the area where they were found, Vivek Gogia, told a press conference that computer logs showed the police were on the scene six minutes after receiving a distress call and the couple were in hospital 28 minutes later. 
 
 "This is not the time to engage in arguments," he added. 
 
 Separately, the police filed a case against Zee News because the interview, which showed the boyfriend's face unobscured, had illegally disclosed the identity of a rape victim. 
 
 The Committee to Protect Journalists criticised the move in a statement. 
 
 While faith in the police force is already low -- they are widely pilloried as corrupt, insensitive to complaints from women and understaffed -- the revelation that bystanders failed to help the injured couple angered some Delhi residents. 
 
 "As people we should try and improve ourselves because the boy talked about how the people who were passing by did not try to help them," said Abhinav Agarwal, a 31-year-old manager at a private company. 
 
 "More than the police, it is the public who should try to reflect and bring a change in their attitude," he told AFP. 
 
 Others pointed out that witnesses to crimes were generally reluctant to help or come forward in India out of fear of being implicated by police or being consumed in a lengthy trial. 
 
 At the district court in south Delhi on Saturday, magistrate Namrita Aggarwal told AFP that she had "taken cognisance of the case". 
 
 The suspects aged from 19 to 35 have been called to appear before her on Monday and prosecutor Rajiv Mohan said the police had strong evidence, including a statement from the boyfriend and forensic evidence. 
 
 "The blood of the victim tallied with the stains found on the clothes of the accused," he added. 
 
 Aggarwal had been expected to transfer the case to a separate fast-track court set up specifically to deal with it. 
 
 The raped woman was an ambitious physiotherapy student interning in New Delhi who had been to see the "Life of Pi" film at an upmarket shopping mall with her boyfriend. 
 
 "I was not very confident about getting into the bus but my friend was running late, so we got into it. This was the biggest mistake I made," he told AFP. 
 
 He said that the driver of the bus and his accomplices allegedly made lewd remarks before stopping the vehicle, which had tinted windows, and locking the doors. 
 
 "They hit me with a small stick and dragged my friend to a seat near the driver's cabin," he added. 
 
 After that the "driver and the other men raped my friend and hit her in the worst possible ways in the most private parts of her body". 
 
 In his interview with AFP, he said he was "in love" with the victim but declined to comment on statements from friends that they were to marry. 
 
 The man's father also spoke to AFP by telephone, saying his son was still in a state of shock but that he was proud he had done his best to defend the victim. 
 
 Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
– The 28-year-old boyfriend of the gang-rape victim in India has given his first interviews after the attack, and he says both he and his girlfriend tried and failed to fight off their six attackers: "We tried to resist them. Even my friend fought with them; she tried to save me," he tells Zee News, in a report picked up by the BBC. "She tried to dial the police control room number 100, but the accused snatched her mobile away." The still-unidentified boyfriend suffered a fractured leg and other injuries, reports the AFP, which has an interview of its own. He recounts how they boarded a private bus with tinted windows outside a movie theater, even though he had his doubts. He quickly asked the driver to stop, but by then the assailants had locked the doors. In the interview, he criticized the initial police response as insensitive, along with what he called too-slow care at the public hospital that treated them. "What can I say? The cruelty I saw should not be seen ever. I tried to fight against the men, but later I begged them again and again to leave her." "I was not very confident about getting into the bus, but my friend was running late, so we got into it. This was the biggest mistake I made and after that everything went out of control." "They hit me with a small stick and dragged my friend to a seat near the driver's cabin." Then, the "driver and the other men raped my friend and hit her in the worst possible ways in the most private parts of her body." They were thrown from the bus after about an hour, and the boyfriend says some passersby did nothing to help.