Teen gangraped at Dehradun bus terminus; 3 drivers, conductor, cashier held

The Uttarakhand Police have arrested five men, including three bus drivers, a conductor, and a cashier, for the alleged gang-rape of a teenage girl in a government bus at the Interstate Bus Terminal in Dehradun.

The crime was committed on August 12, but the police were informed about it only on Saturday (August 17).

The police told PTI that the Dehradun Child Welfare Committee (CWC) was informed about a teenage girl sitting alone late at night on a bench at the Dehradun ISBT on August 12.

CCTV footage helps police identify accused

She was taken to a government girls’ home, where she informed the authorities, during counselling, that she had been raped. A First Information Report (FIR) was registered under section 70 of the BNS and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) based on a complaint by a CWC member on August 17.

The police looked at CCTV footage of the cameras in the ISBT and identified the bus and the rapists and arrested them.

The five accused have been identified as Dharmendra Kumar (32), Rajpal (57), Devendra (52), Rajesh Kumar Sonkar (38), and Ravi Kumar (34).

Girl was on way to Punjab

The victim told the police that she was a resident of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, and that she first went to Delhi and then took a bus to Dehradun.

One of the accused, Devendra, told the police that the girl had approached him at the Kashmiri Gate ISBT in Delhi and asked him how she could go to Punjab. He told her to take a bus to Dehradun and from there another bus to Punjab.

When the bus reached Dehradun and all the other passengers got off the bus, Devendra and then the driver Dharmendra allegedly raped her. Ravi and Rajpal were drivers of buses parked nearby, and when they heard about the girl, they too went into the bus and allegedly assaulted her. When Devendra was depositing the money, he told the cashier Rajesh about the girl, who then allegedly proceeded to rape the girl.