A 16-year-old girl was allegedly gangraped by three persons, two of whom she knew, earlier this month after they took her in their car to Gurugram from Southwest Delhi’s Vasant Vihar, officers said on Friday.
Officers said the victim was a student of Class 10 in a government school. All the three accused, aged 23, 25 and 35, have been arrested and their car seized. The 25-year-old was her boyfriend, police said, adding that all the three accused work as private cab drivers. Officers said that all the accused and the victim lived in the same locality.
According to annual data released by the Delhi Police earlier this year, in over 98.7% of the rape cases, the accused were known to the victim. Police had said that in most cases, the accused was a family member, friend, neighbour or a relative.
DCP (Southwest) Manoj C. said that they received a PCR call at around 4 a.m. at the Vasant Vihar Police Station regarding the rape of a minor girl by three persons. The caller, the father of the victim, said that on July 6 at around 8:30 p.m., his daughter left from Vasant Vihar in a vehicle, a WagonR, with three persons. He added that all four of them went for a ride and came back the next day on July 7 morning at around 7 a.m. “She reported the incident to her parents in the evening on July 7, following which she was taken to the hospital,” the DCP said.
The minor, during her counselling, said that two of the accused, previously known to her, had met her near the Vasant Vihar market at around 8:30 p.m. on the day of the incident and offered to give her a joyride in their vehicle. Thereafter, another boy came with the vehicle and all four rode the car and went to Mahipalpur, nearly half-an-hour away from Vasant Vihar, where they bought alcohol and all four of them consumed liquor. “Thereafter, they went with the girl to Gurugram and in a secluded area, the two boys raped her inside the car,” the DCP added.
“Before dropping the victim at her place, all four of them had breakfast at a roadside stall in the morning of July 7,” an officer said.
POCSO, Section 376 D of IPC
Police added that the girl got medically examined and a case under the relevant sections of the POCSO Act and section 376D (gangrape) of the IPC has been lodged. During the victim’s 164 CrPC statement (before a magistrate), she stated that her boyfriend kissed her first, after which the two other boys went on to rape her. “There is no external injury to the victim or the accused and further investigation is on to clarify the facts of the case,” the DCP added.
An officer said: “She is trying to defend her boyfriend but according to our preliminary probe, since there are no injuries among the accused nor any visible injury marks on the victim’s body, the 25-year-old too will also be an accused”.
