The Hindu : Front Page : 18-year-old girl raped in Delhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 18, 2005

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Front Page

18-year-old girl raped in Delhi

Staff Reporter

All four accused held; victim was able to note down the number of their car

NEW DELHI: An 18-year-old girl who had come to the Capital looking for a job was allegedly lured and criminally assaulted by a young man and his three friends at Sabzi Mandi in North Delhi on Sunday night. The police have managed to trace and arrest all the accused with the help of the registration number of the young man's car which the victim managed to jot down.

According to the police, the case came to light when the girl approached the Kashmere Gate police station in the early hours of Monday and narrated her tale of woe. She also gave them the registration number of the Maruti Wagon-R car used by the accused. The police managed to trace the address to Roshanara Road in Sabzi Mandi and arrested the accused. They have been identified as 22-year-old Jatin Handa, Gaurav Gandhi (21), Prateek (18) and Chanakya Dua (21). The car has also been seized.

The police said the girl had left her home at Modinagar in Uttar Pradesh around 1 p.m. on Sunday apparently following a tiff with her family. She boarded a bus for Delhi and reached the Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT) at Kashmere Gate around 4 p.m.

While she was aimlessly walking down the road, a Wagon-R pulled up next to her near the Roshanara Road roundabout around 5-30 p.m.

The driver, who later turned out to be Jatin Handa, asked her if she needed help. When the girl told him that she needed a job and an accommodation, Jatin assured her all help. Apparently convinced by his offer, she got into his car.

Jatin then drove the car to many places ostensibly trying to help the girl, the police said. However, after dark he brought her to a small office on Roshanara Road -- which turned out to be the office of Jatin's brother who was out of station -- and "requested" her to put up there for the night for want of a better arrangement. Around 10 at night the other three accused joined Jatin. They then allegedly took turns to criminally assault her.

Around 3 a.m. in the middle of the night the accused forced the girl into the Wagon-R and drove her to ISBT where they asked her to get down.

As they drove away, the girl hired an auto-rickshaw and began following the car. She managed to note down its registration number and went to the nearest police station. The girl was taken for a medical examination at Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital on Monday where the assault was confirmed.

The police said she was now being counselled. A police team has been sent to Modinagar to find out why exactly she left her home. In the past eight days, this is the third incident in Delhi of a woman being criminally assaulted by men.

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