NEW DELHI, May 14: Recalling the horrors of the 2012 Nirbhaya case, a 30-year-old woman was allegedly dragged inside a private sleeper bus and raped by the driver and conductor in northwest Delhi’s Mangolpuri area, police said on Thursday. The two men have been arrested.
The assault, which brought back memories of the Delhi gangrape-murder of the 23-year-old who came to be known as Nirbhaya, took place on May 11. The arrests took place the following day.
Recapping the events of the night, police sources said the woman was returning home after working at a factory in Mangolpuri. When she reached near the B-Block bus stand in Saraswati Vihar, she saw a man standing near the bus door and asked him the time. The man then allegedly dragged her inside the bus, drove the vehicle towards Nangloi and raped her.
According to the statement of the woman, who is married and has three children, both the men raped her in turn.
The bus was stationed near the Nangloi metro station while the woman was assaulted, a police officer told PTI. “The Rani Bagh police station received information regarding the alleged rape of a woman. Her statement was recorded immediately and an FIR registered without delay,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Vikram Singh said in a video statement.
Police received information about the incident in a PCR call from the victim who alleged that she was sexually assaulted by two men.
Multiple teams were formed to nab the accused. While one of them was arrested immediately after the FIR was registered, the other was nabbed four hours later. “Both the accused were produced before a city court and sent to judicial custody. Our teams are investigating the matter from all possible angles. The teams are collecting every single CCTV footage clip to make a strong case against the accused,” a police officer said.
The investigators are also probing if the bus had automatic doors.
The husband of the victim told reporters that she was assaulted during the incident and had received minor injuries on her face and hands. “One of her relatives dropped her near S Block. We got to know that she was dragged inside the bus and two men raped her. We are getting complete support from police,” he said.
He said the victim got immediate help from the on-duty officers after she reached the police station. The officers recorded her statement, rushed her to a hospital and arrested the accused. “We request for strict punishment for the accused,” the husband said.
The sources said police are planning to map the entire route followed by the bus from the moment the victim was dragged inside it and trying to ascertain if anyone else was present when the incident happened. “The victim has levelled allegations that she was dumped out of the bus. The police teams are probing the case from all angles,” one of the sources said.
Meanwhile, the National Commission for Women (NCW) on Thursday took suo motu cognisance of the reports of the alleged gangrape of a woman inside a private sleeper bus in Delhi and sought an action taken report from the city police within seven days. (PTI)
