New Delhi, April 8: In a shocking incident, a 19- year-old woman was allegedly kidnapped and gangraped by 23 people over a week in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. The accused also shot the videos of the act within 7 days she left on March 29.
The teenager, a resident of the Lalpur area in northern Varanasi, had gone to visit a friend on March 29, a routine she often followed without any issues. However, this time she did not return home. Her family filed a missing person report with the police on April 4.
In her written complaint, the victim named 12 individuals as the accused, while the remaining 11 were described as unidentified men. However, the police have arrested six people in connection with the incident.
The assaults reportedly took place at a hookah bar, a hotel, a lodge, and a guest house in which various people were involved. The complaint mentions 23 people raped her.
Some of the arrested men are from Hukulganj and Lallapura areas, and they were taken into custody the same night. But the police are reluctant to give any detail since some of them could be minors.
Chandrakant Meena, a senior officer of the local police, said neither the victim nor her family had initially filed a complaint of sexual assault. "The rape complaint was lodged only on April 6," he told reporters.
The complaint states that the victim has five siblings. After finishing her 12th grade, she actively participated in athletic events at both the school and college levels. Currently, alongside her studies, she worked at a spa center in a city hotel. The complainant mentioned that her daughter (the victim) would frequently be away from home for a few days due to work. However, this time, she had been missing for an entire week.
In the complaint, the victim’s mother claimed that after finishing her work on March 29, while the victim was returning home, she met one of her friends, Raj Vishwakarma, who took her for an outing. Raj tookthe victim to a otel where he raped her ans shot the video of it. On March 30, he called some of his friends and they forced the victim to stay back in the whotel or else they would make the video with Raj viral on social media. Then she was raped by all of them.
The complainant alleged that the perpetrators had confiscated the victim's mobile phone, preventing her from contacting anyone.
After keeping the victim in that hotel for a day, the perpetrators called some more persons named Suhail, Sajid, Anmol, Danish and Zaheer. They made the victim sit in a car and took her to Continental Café in Maldahiya locality in a sub-cautious state as they had forcibly made her sniff some intoxicated substance. They assaulted her sexually and called more persons, including Imran, Shoaib and Zaib, who also took turns with her.
In the meantime, one of the accused Sajid made the victim sit in a car with 5-6 persons and they raped her in moving four-wheeler before throwing her out in the dead of April 3 night.
So far, around half a dozen persons including Sajid, Ayush Singh, Danish Khan, Anmol, Imran and one more person, were taken into custody by the police in connection with the case.
