A 16-year-old girl was gang-raped inside a moving bus in India’s Greater Noida. She was then taken roughly 40 kilometers away and left on the street in Delhi. Police have arrested two men in connection with the case.
Both accused had been working for the private transport company Vishwanath Travels for more than two years, an employee of the company said. The incident, which bears some resemblance to the widely reported December 2012 Nirbhaya case, occurred on August 4, though it has only just been reported.
On the day of the incident, the girl boarded an empty bus to reach Sector 63 in Noida. Reporting the story, NDTV Online said the bus’s driver, 39-year-old Kuldeep, and conductor, 26-year-old Sandeep, were arrested the same day from a parking area in Timarpur, North Delhi. The girl, who had set out from Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh toward Noida, was allegedly gang-raped, after which the two men remained in that area.
In her complaint to police, the girl said that after being scolded by her mother about her studies, she left home without telling anyone in her family, intending to go to a cousin’s house in Noida. Amid heavy rain and darkness, she got off at Pari Chowk in Noida and realized her destination was still far away. It was around 9 p.m. Soaked completely in the rain and alone, she was still roughly 25 kilometers from her cousin’s house. At that point, a bus pulled up near her.
The bus had sleeper berths for long-distance travel, but no passengers. According to the complaint, the conductor told her they too were heading toward Noida’s Sector 63. The girl then boarded the bus. However, police said the bus was actually returning from a workshop in Surajpur, Greater Noida.
In her complaint, the girl said that shortly after the bus started moving, the conductor began behaving inappropriately toward her and sexually assaulted her. The complaint states that when she tried to resist, the accused threatened to kill her. After the assault, the accused left her near the Ring Road area close to Kashmere Gate in Delhi. She later filed a complaint with police. An operation to find the accused began immediately afterward, and the investigation was intensified.
Police said the berths of the “sleeper” bus were covered with curtains. Investigators believe the accused took advantage of this setup. Forensic team members found strands of the girl’s hair inside the bus. Police have seized the bus. Investigators have also collected CCTV footage from various points along the bus’s route. Other information and evidence related to the incident are being examined.