New Delhi: The Uttarakhand police arrested five people in connection with the alleged gang rape of a teenage girl in a state government bus after a bus arrived from Delhi, officials said.
Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Singh stated that among those arrested were the driver and conductor of the government bus. He also said that the incident, which took place on August 12 at the local bus stand, was reported to the police on Saturday evening.
The police acted swiftly, using CCTV camera footage to identify the roadway bus and arrested the five individuals accused, including the driver and conductor, he said, PTI reported.
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.
He further informed that Dharmendra Kumar is the driver of the bus used in the incident and Devendra is the conductor, while, Ravi Kumar and Rajpal are drivers of other buses and Sonkar is a cashier of the Uttarakhand Roadways posted at the bus stand.
The police officer stated that the bus involved in the incident had been impounded and a forensic team was gathering evidence from inside.
Police said the incident came to light after the Dehradun Child Welfare Committee (CWC) was informed about a girl, aged 16-17, sitting alone on a bench at platform number 12 of the Interstate Bus Terminal (ISBT) here late at night on August 12, PTI reported. The Dehradun CWC sent the victim to Bal Niketan, a government girls’ home, for her safety.
At the time of counselling in Bal Niketan, she informed the authorities about the alleged rape, after which CWC member Pratibha Joshi filed a police complaint on Saturday evening.
Based on the complaint, a case was registered under section 70 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act at the Patel Nagar police station.