New Delhi | 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 bus has been seized.
"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.
Based on the woman's statement, the FIR was lodged under sections 64(1) (rape), 70(1) (gang-rape) and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on May 12, the DCP said.
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.
"We have asked the forensic teams to collect evidence from the bus. The forensic and medical reports will also be examined thoroughly. We are verifying the sequence of the events. The teams are also probing that whether the bus was in operation at the time and if any other passenger was present during the alleged crime," the officer said.
Sahil Malhotra, owner of Royal Traveller and Cargo Bus, said after being informed about the incident involving the driver, he assisted police in reaching the driver's house, from where the accused was arrested. Malhotra said the accused was working under him for the last year and a half and had no previous police record against him.
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 of the victim 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.
Police said they received the PCR call at around 4:45 am at the Nangloi police station and the case was later transferred to the Rani Bagh police station.
Reacting to the incident, former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on X: "We learned nothing from Nirbhaya. This incident is a stain on the entire society."
His Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also likened the incident to the Nirbhaya case and said it was a "big shame".
In a post on X, Delhi AAP chief Saurabh Bharadwaj condemned the incident.
"Big Shame -- Nirbhaya repeated. 30 yr old woman was picked up in the bus at night on pretext of asking time. Then she was raped by multiple people in the moving bus for around 2 hours. Bus kept moving in Rani Bagh area of Delhi covering 7 km," he said.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau's (NCRB) "Crime in India 2024" report, Delhi recorded the highest number of crimes against women among 19 metropolitan cities, with 13,396 cases registered in the year.
According to recent reports, a total of 1,058 rape cases were reported in 2024.
