New Delhi, May 15:
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.