3 men rape girl in moving car for 6 hrs

NEW DELHI: In yet another incident of rape in a moving car, three young men allegedly assaulted a 16-year-old girl for about six hours in north Delhi, after abducting her from a crowded place, recently.

The victim has alleged that she was burnt with cigarette butts every time she tried to seek help and was even filmed while the crime was being committed. The accused finally dumped her near Peeragarhi late at night, threatening to release an MMS if she reported the matter to the police. One person, who is said to work in a shop in the Sabzi Mandi area, was arrested late on Monday night while two are still absconding.

"The girl alleged that she was raped when returning home on the evening of June 27. We have registered a case under IPC sections 363 (kidnapping), 376 (rape) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt). We have arrested one of the accused, a resident of Punjabi Basti at Sabzi Mandi. So far, we have not found any MMS clip in the mobile phone of the detained person but we will question all the three accused. The police was approached last Sunday night after which we immediately launched a probe," said DCP (North) I B Rani. Sources at the police headquarters said a medical test showed "signs" of rape but could not prove it "conclusively".

According to the police, the victim is a student of Class 11 in a government school and lives in the Malkaganj area with her parents, two elder sisters and a brother. Her father is employed in a lower-rung job in a BPO. "She was returning from the Kamla Market area after tution and had reached the Ghanta Ghar area near Sabzi Mandi, usually a very crowded place, when the incident took place," said the investigating officer. He added that the girl alleged she was abducted around 5pm and it was not until 11pm that she was thrown out of the car. "The girl has not been able to tell us about the route taken by the accused to reach Peeragarhi, several kilometers from the spot," added the officer.

The victim told reporters she was walking down the road when a white Maruti pulled up beside her. "One of the youths in the car was the brother of one of my classmates whom I have known for the past two years. One of them was driving the car while the other two were sitting in the rear. One of them tried to pull me inside the car all of a sudden. I tried to pull away, but they tugged at my bag and pushed me inside the car. Every time I tried to roll down the window, they burnt me with cigarettes. I was thrown out of the car late in the night after they threatened to release an MMS if I complained," the victim alleged.

The victim's father said the family was "shocked" when their youngest child refused to talk to them after returning home late that night. "She was just crying, refusing to go to school. Her sister found out about the burns on her body and coaxed her to come out with the truth. It was then that we approached the police," he said.

The Delhi Police commissioner had on Saturday claimed that the city had one of the lowest counts of rape per lakh of population across the world while trying to dispel fears about Delhi being an unsafe city. Delhi has a rate of 3.09 rapes compared to 211 in Manchester, 165 in Johannesburg and 24.7 in California, claimed the top cop. There has been a total of 258 rapes till June 30 this year compared to 289 cases in the same period last year, a drop of 10.73%.