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A 17-year-old Dalit girl who eloped with her boyfriend was gang-raped by three college students in front of him in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, in the early hours of Sunday morning, police said.
They said that the three accused, who crushed the victim’s friend before taking turns to rape her, were arrested hours after the incident.
A senior police official said the accused were looking for a student leader seeking a ticket from the student wing of the RSS Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) for the Students’ Union elections.
However, ABVP said it had no ties to the defendants.
Prime Minister Ashok Jahlot spoke to the Director General of Police (DGP) Umesh Mishra about the incident in Jodhpur, his hometown, and instructed that the accused be punished, according to the officials.
Jahlot said the speed with which the police arrested the accused was commendable. He added that his government would ensure justice for the victim by securing the harshest punishment for the perpetrators.
The girl ran away with her boyfriend from Ajmer on Saturday. They took a bus and reached Jodhpur around 10:30 pm. They later went to a guest house to get a room but left after the caretaker, Suresh Jat, misbehaved with the girl, said Amrita Dohan, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East).
The two then went to Bauta Chauraha, where the three accused – Samander Singh Bhatti, Dharampal Singh and Bhatam Singh (ages 20 to 22) – approached them, she said.
The directorate said that the accused established friendship with the girl and her boyfriend, and provided them with food and cold drinks.
When the girl and her boyfriend told the defendants about themselves, the three reassured them that they would help. Dohan said that the accused took them at around 4 am to the hockey field in the old campus of Jay Narayan Vyas University (JNVU) under the pretense of taking them to the railway station.
After they got to the ground, she said, they beat the boy and held him hostage, while they took turns raping the girl.
When in the morning pedestrians began arriving on campus, the accused fled the scene. She added that the girl’s boyfriend called for help from pedestrians in the morning, who alerted the police.
The police intervened and began chasing the accused. The Clapp Squad and the Forensic Science Lab team were also on site.
Hours after the incident, the accused were traced to a house in Ganeshpura near Rattanada in Jodhpur. They tried to flee, but were injured after falling. Doohan said that while two of them broke their legs while trying to escape, the third was shot in the hand.
“We arrested them all after treatment,” she added.
Samandar Singh is a first-year student at JNVU, Dharm Pal Singh is a postgraduate student at JNVU and Bhattam Singh is chasing a B.Ed from Ajmer, the officer said.
Police said they also arrested the caretaker of the guest house for allegedly misbehaving the girl.
Hours before the incident, Chief Secretary of Rajasthan Usha Sharma and Director General of Police Umesh Mishra held a meeting to review the law and order situation in the state.
An FIR indicating each of the incidents (guest house misconduct and gang rape on the hockey field) was registered at the local police station under the relevant sections of the Child Sexual Offenses Protection Act, the IPC and Classified Castes and Classified Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
ABVP National Secretary Hoshyar Meena said the accused had no links to the group of students. ABVP is calling for the most severe punishment for the defendants. The law and order situation in Rajasthan is deteriorating day by day and the safety of the universities is being neglected by the Congress government.”
Prime Minister Jillot said there were reports of involvement of people associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party and their organizations in rape incidents in Jodhpur and Datia in Madhya Pradesh.
“It is because of such incidents that the character and face of the BJP has been exposed,” he said.
Jehlot said BJP President JP Nada kept silent and did not even condemn these incidents which showed the party’s seriousness for women’s safety.
“No matter how influential the accused is, the state government will secure maximum punishment for criminals to bring justice to an innocent daughter,” he wrote on Twitter.
In Jaipur, National Union of Students of India (NSUI) President Abhishek Chaudhary said the group of students will present a representation to the governor against the ABVP party on Monday.
This incident is a disgrace to humanity. The most stringent measures should be taken against the accused. “We’re going to hand over representation to the governor against ABVP’s tainted ideology,” he said.
House Speaker and Welfare Board Speaker Archana Sharma in Jaipur said the police arrested the accused immediately, demonstrating the state government’s commitment to the safety of the woman.
(This story was not edited by the News18 staff and was published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
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