5 held after girl gang-raped in bus at Dehradun busstand

PTI, Aug 18, 2024, 6:53 PM IST

The Dehradun Police on Sunday arrested five people in connection with the alleged gang-rape of a teenage girl in a Delhi-Dehradun bus at the busstand here, officials said.

Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Singh said the incident took place on August 12 and the police were informed about in on Saturday evening.

The police swung into action immeditely and identified the Uttarakhand Roadways bus by scanning CCTV cameras and arrested the five, he said.

The accused have been identified as: Dharmendra Kumar (32) and Rajpal (57), both residents of Buggawala in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar; Devendra (52), a resident of Bhagwanpur in Haridwar; Rajesh Kumar Sonkar (38), a resident of Patel Nagar here; and Ravi Kumar (34), a resident of Nawabganj in Farrukhabad district of Uttar Pradesh.

The police officer said that the Uttarakhand Roadways bus used in the incident has been impounded and a forensic team is collecting evidence from the bus. Police said the incident came to light after the Dehradun Child Welfare Committee was informed about a girl, aged of 16-17, sitting alone on a bench at platform number 12 of the Interstate Bus Terminal (ISBT) here late night on August 12.

The Dehradun Child Welfare Committee (CWC) sent her to Bal Niketan, a government girls’ home, for her safety.

During counselling at the Bal Niketan, she informed the authorities about the alleged rape, after which CWC member Pratibha Joshi filed a police complaint on Saturday evening.

On the basis of the complaint, a case was registered at the Patel Nagar police station under section 70 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The SSP inspected the area, formed a special police team to investigate the incident, and also met the victim and inquired about what happened.

Police said that during preliminary interrogation, the girl told them she is an orphan and that she is a resident of Punjab.

Later, she told them that she is a resident of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. She first went to Delhi from Moradabad and then took a bus from Kashmiri Gate in Delhi and to Dehradun, where she was allegedly raped.

Police said the girl kept changing her statements initially, but on interrogation she gave information about her family.

Police contacted the family and found out that the victim’s parents are alive. They were also told that the girl had fled her house in past also without informing anyone.

However, every time the family brought her home after getting information about her through various sources.