Ghaziabad: The 19-year-old class 12 student, who was raped by three men on the night of March 2, had fought hard to save herself from her assailants, police here said Thursday.
Two of the three men involved in the incident have been arrested. “All three are in their twenties,” Superintendent of Police Ghaziabad rural Jagdish Sharma said.
The girl, a resident of Trilokpuri in east Delhi, had motioned for the tempo traveller to stop and take her on board from near Shipra Mall on National Highway 24 at about 8.30 p.m, police officials said. The men had stopped and told her that they were headed her way, and would drop her at Trilokpuri. However, they attacked the girl, gagged her and raped her inside the tempo. She resisted the men so hard that one iron railing on the window of the vehicle broke. In her statement to the police, the girl mentioned that the rod on the window had broken; she also informed them that the vehicle had a black tarpaulin sheet that covered the windows and served as a curtain of sorts. The girl had earlier resisted a diversion in the route of the vehicle – while the men had initially told her they were headed towards Delhi, they later took a U-turn and drove in the opposite direction. When the girl questioned the change of direction in the vehicle, two of the men sat beside her and gagged her.
After raping her in the vehicle, the men dragged the 19-year-old out into the fields near Bankey Bihari Dental College and again raped her, taking turns.
Policemen found a tempo that fitted the description offered by the girl parked in Dasna town of Ghaziabad. Its owner said the vehicle had been stolen from him, and that a police complaint in the matter had been lodged earlier. The vehicle’s owner, Prem Singh, said three men in an inebriated condition had taken the vehicle from its driver, Pintu, in broad daylight on March 2.
The men had been driving to Delhi in the vehicle, and had stopped at Khoda for some repairs to the tempo. At around 8.30 p.m., they were near Shipra Mall.
After committing the crime, the men left the girl in the fields and fled.
They took with them Rs.400 that the girl had with her, her ATM card and mobile phone. The girl managed to reach a police station at 11.30 p.m. to lodge a complaint. “Police conducted a medical examination and registered the case under sections 376, 364, 392 and 342 of IPC (dealing with gang-rape, kidnap with intention of murder, robbery and wrongful confinement),” a police official said. The police, on a tip-off from driver Pintu, identified one of the culprits as Dabban, who confessed to the crime and admitted that there were two others with him. (IANS)