NEW DELHI, Oct 19: In a reminiscent of the brutal “Nirbhaya” rape case, a 36-year old Delhi woman was gang raped and left on the roadside wrapped in a jute bag with an iron rod inserted in her private parts.
The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has issued a notice to Ghaziabad police in connection with the brutal gang rape of the woman with the panel chief Swati Maliwal saying the attack reminded her of the Nirbhaya case.
The woman, a resident of Delhi, was found “wrapped in a jute bag, with her hands and legs tied and an iron rod inserted in her private part,” the DCW said. According to the panel, the woman was waiting for an auto-rickshaw in Ghaziabad to attend her brother’s birthday celebration on October 16 when four men kidnapped her in an SUV.
They, along with another man, allegedly gang-raped and tortured her for two days before leaving her on the roadside in the wee hours of Tuesday wrapped in the gunny bag, it said. The woman is being treated at a hospital in Delhi, but is in a “very critical condition”, it said.
The Ghaziabad police said they have taken four men into custody. The police claimed that the accused and the victim’s family knew each other and were involved in a property dispute.
According to the Ghaziabad police, the woman who stays in East Delhi was found near Nandgram police station at 3.30 am on Tuesday. The police reached the spot after receiving information that a woman was lying on the ground near Ashram Road and rushed her to a hospital.
“She said that she had gone to her brother’s birthday party in Nandgram. When her brother dropped her back, some people known to her took her away. She said there were two people and then told us later that five people had raped her,” Ghaziabad SP (City) Nipun Agarwal said.
“Based on her brother’s complaint, a case has been registered and four people were taken into custody. There is seemingly a property dispute between the family and those men in which a court case is also ongoing. Action is being taken,” Agarwal added.
In an update, hospital authorities said the victim’s vitals were stable, and no internal injuries had been found so far. She is under observation, authorities added. The DCW has asked the police to file an action taken report in the case by October 21 to the commission.
The DCW said the woman was kidnapped by four men in a Scorpio vehicle and taken to another location, where she was gang raped by them and another man for two days. She was then put in a sack and left on the road, and was found in a pool of blood, with an iron rod inserted in her private parts.
“When the woman was admitted to the hospital, the rod was removed with great difficulty; the woman is now fighting for her life. We have issued a notice… there should be a swift arrest and strict action taken. This case is just like the Nirbhaya case… It is my appeal that at least this case be fast-tracked and these men be given a severe punishment,” Swati Maliwal said.
(Manas Dasgupta)
