Bhawanipatna: A bus driver, accused of being the main culprit by a college student who was allegedly gangraped in Kalahandi district nearly two weeks ago, has been arrested, police said Saturday.
The 22-year-old woman had named the bus driver Lalindra Sabar of Parla village under Dharmagarh block in a fresh allegation Friday, two days after police arrested nine people in connection with the incident.
He was apprehended on the basis of the woman’s latest statement, Kalahandi Superintendent of Police B Gangadhar said.
Of the nine people held Wednesday, six, including a juvenile, were booked for raping the woman in a forest near Junagarh September 14. Three others were arrested for uploading a video of the act on social media.
She claimed that a bus driver, who was known to her, had given her lift in his bike before the incident and he raped her first.
“Though nine people have been arrested, the bus driver was not one of them. He is the main accused. He was the first to rape me and the police should arrest him forthwith,” she had told local television channels.
The woman, a student of a private nursing college at Junagarh, was allegedly gangraped on the afternoon of September 14 in Jaring forest area. She lodged an FIR late on the night of September 22.
She had been to Bhawanipatna for a health checkup September 14 and was waiting to return to Junagarh, when the bus driver offered her a lift in his motor-cycle.
“On the way, he got several calls on his mobile phone and suddenly slowed down, and virtually stopped the bike near a temple at Banamalipur. Over six persons appeared and dragged me into the forest. The driver raped me first and then the others,” the woman had said in her fresh claim.
PNN