19-year-old girl gang-raped in moving car in Bengaluru, 4 arrested

The victim reached home and reported the incident to her mother, with whose help she got treated at a hospital.

A 19-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped in a moving car that roamed the city’s streets in the intervening night between March 25 and 26 in a chilling reminder of the 2012 gang rape case of New Delhi that spurred protests and changes to laws dealing with sexual abuse.

Four youths, all in the age group of 22 and 24, were arrested within eight hours of the crime being reported. “Medical examination of the victim has been carried out and she is recovering,” said C.K. Baba, DCP (South East), Bengaluru.

According to the police, on the night of March 25 around 9.30 p.m., the victim, who works as an office assistant at  a software firm, was reportedly sitting with a male friend in a park near National Games Village, Koramangala. One of the accused approached them and questioned what the girl was doing in the park “late in the night with a male friend”, leading to an argument between the three and the girl and her friend asking him to mind his own business.

When rebuffed, the accused left the place in a huff. The girl stayed back while the male friend left the place. The accused allegedly came back with three of his friends to the spot a few moments later, and the gang allegedly dragged the girl into a car and sped away, said the police. 

The victim in her complaint has alleged that four men took turns to rape her in the moving car. Police said that the car, now recovered, travelled the city’s streets via Domlur, Hosur Road, NICE Road and took a U-turn just before Attibele Police Checkpost out of fear of being caught and returned to Ejipura and dropped off the victim by the roadside around 3.30 a.m. 

The victim reached home and reported the incident to her mother, with whose help she got treated at a hospital for her injuries, and later filed a complaint with the Koramangala police. “The accused were all from the same areas of Ejipura and Rajendranagar and one of them was known to the victim’s friend. We tracked all of them down in eight hours and arrested them,” said Mr. Baba.

The arrested have been identified as Satish, Vijay, Sridhar and Kiran. While two of them work as office boys in nearby private firms, one was an electrician and another a BPO employee. The accused have been booked under section 376D of the Indian Penal Code for gang rape.