Dehradun (Uttarakhand): Amid nationwide protest against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata, a shocking case has come to the fore from Uttarakhand where an orphan teenage girl was allegedly gang-raped by five men in a parked bus at an Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT), police said.
The police have arrested five suspects in this case, who included the driver, the conductor and the cashier. The incident took place on August 13, and a case was lodged on Saturday after a team from the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) rescued the teenager. The victim was found in a distraught state at the ISBT near the Kotwali Patel Nagar Police Post. The CWC team counselled her for four days and then registered a case, a senior police official said.
A case has been registered against the five accused under sections 70(2) BNS 5 (g)/6 of POCSO. The five accused have been identified as Dharmendra Kumar, Devendra Kumar, Ravi Kumar, Rajesh Kumar and Rajpal.
As per police sources, the survivor from Punjab is an orphan and resided with her sister and brother-in-law. A member of the CWC said that the teenager, in her statement, said that she was thrown out of the house by her sister and brother-in-law on Sunday, August 11 after which she went from Moradabad to Delhi and was roaming around Delhi's Kashmiri Gate, during which the driver of a contracted bus of Uttarakhand lured her and brought her to Dehradun.
"She had boarded a bus from Moradabad and reached ISBT Dehradun at around 2.30 am on the night of August 13 when five people gang-raped her inside the vehicle upon finding her alone. They then forced her to alight from the bus," the CWC member said quoting the teenager.
Police said that the bus was painted red, from which it is being assumed that it could be an Uttar Pradesh Transport Corporation vehicle.
According to the statement of the victim, initially, there were two other people on the bus, and later two more joined them. However, the police have detained a cashier sitting at a counter of Uttarakhand Transport Corporation from the ISBT bus stand.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ajay Singh said that he reached the ISBT Chowki and inquired about the incident and registered the case. An investigation into the matter is underway, police said.
Meanwhile, even after the swift arrest of the five accused, there are still many questions that remain unanswered.
- Is there no proper security in place at Dehradun ISBT?
- Checking and vigilance at Dehradun ISBT also under question?
- Why was the police not informed about the case from August 13 to August 18?
- The minor was repeatedly asking the address of Patiala, what is her connection with Patiala?
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