A 19-year-old woman was abducted from a bus stand in Mahendergarh, drugged, and taken to a house at Naya Gaon in Rewari 40km away where 12 men allegedly raped her for several hours. The suspects then drove her back to the same bus stop, dumped her there and alerted her family. They were from the same village and knew the woman and her family well.
Three of the suspects have been named in the FIR ¡ª Pankaj, an Army jawan, Nishu and Manish. No arrests have been made yet. The woman, a state topper in the Class X boards some years ago and a promising baseball player, had taken a roadways bus to Kanina in Mahendergarh on Wednesday for railway exam coaching classes. Initial findings suggest the sexual assault was planned in advance. Some of the suspects, including the three men named in the FIR, had kept tabs on her house since morning and followed her bus in a car and a bike.
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The woman boarded the bus around 7am. He father was with her. When she got off at Kanina bus stand, the stop for her coaching centre, around 8.15am, Manish and Pankaj approached her and feigned surprise at meeting her. The two then allegedly offered her some water, which was spiked. As she became disoriented, the suspects drove her to Naya Gaon and, according to what the woman told her family, took her to ¡°a house with a tubewell¡±, where several more men joined them and raped her. The sexual assault allegedly continued for eight hours. Later, Pankaj, Nishu and Manish drove her back to Kanina and dropped her at the same bus stand around 5pm.
However, noticing that she was still under the influence of sedative, Manish called her father and made her tell her father she was not well and needed to be picked up from the bus stand. Manish also waited till her father arrived. In a statement late on Friday, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar said, ¡°The police is doing their job and the accused will not be spared.¡±
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The woman has been admitted to Rewari Civil Hospital. According to her medical report, she suffered several physical injuries as a result of the sexual assault, mostly on her back, shoulders and private parts. Her family said she is in deep trauma. ¡°She has severe pain in her throat, and is unable to talk or swallow anything. They probably held her by the throat which led to this pain,¡± her mother told TOI at the hospital on Friday.
Residents of Naya Gaon said Nishu had been accused of sexual assault before and police were aware of it but had not filed cases. SP Vinod Kumar refuted the allegations. ¡°These are all baseless allegations and we have not received any further complaints from the survivor¡¯s side. The FIR has three names and we have identified all of them. They will be arrested soon,¡± said Kumar.
A neighbour told TOI. ¡°On Friday, Nishu visited the woman¡¯s house and threatened her father with dire consequences if he pursued a case. It is shocking that police have not been able to arrest the accused even as they are roaming around freely, threatening her family.¡±