A 23-year-old Delhi woman was allegedly gang-raped and assaulted by three unidentified men when she was with two other people on an isolated stretch in Ghaziabad’s Tronica City, police said on Saturday.
At the time of the crime, which was committed on Thursday evening on Khanpur Road, the victim was with a 22-year-old woman, who is her friend and colleague, and the woman’s male friend. While the victim was pulled off the road and raped, her two friends were not attacked by the suspects who fled the spot, police said.
An FIR was registered on Friday against them under Section 376d (gang rape) of the Indian Penal Code, police said.
According to the FIR lodged by the victim, she and her friend work at a toy manufacturing unit in Tronica City and were about to leave for their house in Delhi’s Sonia Vihar at around 6.45pm on Thursday.
“After we left the factory, my friend was trying her hands on a scooty on the isolated Khanpur Road with her male friend, who had come to teach her to ride her new two-wheeler. I was standing nearby. Soon, three unidentified men came to us, and overpowered and separated us…,” the woman stated in her complaint. The details of the vehicle used by the suspects are not known and is under probe.
The woman alleged that one of the three suspects then pulled her off the road inside some bushes and raped her. “Later, the second man arrived and also assaulted me. The three men then fled,” the victim alleged. “The incident left us shocked, and me and my friend left for our homes and informed our families.”
A complaint was lodged with the Tronica City police station later in the evening. The victim was sent for medical examination, police said, adding that her report did not suggest any physical or internal injuries.
During investigation, police questioned the victim’s friends, and found the statements of the man, a resident of Badarpur village, to be inconsistent. It was also found during his questioning that two more unidentified men had arrived at the spot after the women had left, officers said, suggesting that the crime could be premeditated. The crime spot, police added, did not have any CCTV camera nearby.
Police said they are now questioning few people in this connection. “The role of the man is being investigated thoroughly and he is being questioned at length. The role and number of suspects apart from the three initial suspects is also being investigated. We have also picked up three men, and the picture of one of them has been identified by the victim. This suspect is also known to the man in question. Their role is being probed thoroughly. We are also probing why the three suspects only attacked the victim,” said Vivek Chandra Yadav, DCP.
According to officers part of the investigation, the male friend came in contact with the victim’s friend one and half months ago, the two women were old friends and neighbours in Delhi.