Pune: It was ‘Nirbhaya’ revisited once again as a 13-year-old girl was gang-raped by a group of men inside a moving auto-rickshaw in this city. The minor girl was also taken to different locations in this city and also gang-raped there. So far seven men allegedly involved in the gang-rape of the girl has been arrested. The girl however, is not as unlucky as ‘Nirbhaya’ who was brutally raped and assaulted in New Delhi. She has survived the assault and is undergoing treatment at a hospital here, police informed Monday.
The incident happened on the night of August 31. The girl was waiting for her friend at the railway station here when the auto-rickshaw driver found her. He stuck up a conversation with the girl. When the victim’s friend failed to turn up, the auto-rickshaw driver showed sympathy and offered to give her a lift to her destination. As it was late in the evening, the girl agreed.
The driver picked up the girl and then called some of his friends to accompany the two. Then they took turns in raping the girl, police said. While some raped the girl in the moving three-wheeler, others carried out the gruesome act at deserted locations. Then they forced the girl to board a bus bound for Mumbai.
A missing person’s case was filed at Wanwadi police station here by the girl’s father when she did not return late into the night. The cops then started looking for her. They found the victim at a desolate place in Pune. “We recorded the statement of the girl and have arrested seven persons,” Pune Deputy Commissioner of Police Namrata Patil said. “She is undergoing treatment at a hospital is recovering,” she added.
Wanwadi police station senior inspector Deepak Lagad said, “During the investigation of the missing person complaint, we traced the girl Sunday. The girl told the police that she was abducted and raped.”
The police are also looking for some of the other accused involved in the case, officials said. A case has been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and further investigation is on, the police said.