Dehradun police on Sunday (August 18) arrested five individuals in connection with the alleged gang-rape of a teenage girl on a Uttarakhand government bus. The incident reportedly occurred on August 12, after the bus arrived at the Dehradun bus stand from Delhi.
According to Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Singh, the arrested individuals include the bus driver and conductor. The police were alerted to the situation on Saturday evening and promptly began their investigation.
By reviewing CCTV footage, they identified the bus involved and apprehended the suspects, who have been named as Dharmendra Kumar (32) and Rajpal (57) from Haridwar, Devendra (52) from Bhagwanpur in Haridwar, Rajesh Kumar Sonkar (38) from Patel Nagar, Dehradun, and Ravi Kumar (34) from Nawabganj in Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Dharmendra Kumar is the driver of the bus, while Devendra is the conductor. Ravi Kumar and Rajpal are drivers of other buses, and Sonkar serves as a cashier at the Uttarakhand Roadways bus stand.
The police have impounded the bus involved and a forensic team is currently gathering evidence from the vehicle. The case came to light when the Dehradun Child Welfare Committee (CWC) reported a 16-17-year-old girl found alone on a bench at platform 12 of the Interstate Bus Terminal (ISBT) late on August 12. She was taken to Bal Niketan, a government girls’ home, for safety.
During counseling at Bal Niketan, the girl disclosed the alleged rape. Following this, CWC member Pratibha Joshi filed a police complaint on Saturday evening. Based on the complaint, a case was registered at Patel Nagar police station under Section 70(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Senior Superintendent of Police Ajay Singh reviewed the area, assembled a special investigative team, and spoke with the victim to gather details. Initially, the girl provided conflicting statements about her background, first claiming to be from Punjab and later admitting to being from Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh. She stated that after traveling from Moradabad to Delhi, she took a bus from Kashmiri Gate to Dehradun, where the alleged assault took place.
The police discovered that the girl’s parents were alive and informed them of her previous instances of running away from home. During interrogation, Devendra confessed to seeing the girl at Delhi’s Kashmiri Gate ISBT and advising her to board his bus to Dehradun.
Upon arrival in Dehradun, after the other passengers had disembarked, Devendra and driver Dharmendra allegedly assaulted her. Ravi and Rajpal, drivers of nearby buses, reportedly joined in the assault, and Sonkar, the cashier, was also implicated.