Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)
Bangalore, Jul 16: In an incident which has similarities to the gang-rape of Nirbhaya at Delhi and Shakti Mills gang-rape at Mumbai, a gang of hoodlums allegedly kidnapped a girl student from Manipal during her visit here, and gang-raped her in the presence of her friend.
Relating to this case, which came out into the open with some delay, Pulikeshi Nagar police have arrested the main accused, identified as Nasir Haider.
Haider (26) from Fraser Town here is said to be an agent involved with selling of cars. On the night of July 11, he, along with five of his associates, took the student and her male friend in a car at around 12.15 am after posing them threats, it is said. This heinous crime came to light after the girl and her friends tipped the police about the accused. Haider was arrested from Shivaji Nagar here on Sunday July 13.
The police have since obtained a complaint from the victim, registered the same, and produced the youth in the court on Monday. A Skoda car bearing registration No KA 03 MJ 8433 was confiscated from Haider's possession.
Five other accused said to have been involved with this crime have gone missing. A special team headed by assistant commissioner of police has been formed to nab them, the policemen said.
The 22-year-old girl in question, whose paents stay in an apartment in Frazer Town here, has been pursuing postgraduate studies at Manipal, it is learnt. She was on a visit to the city recently.
On the night of July 11, she had returned to the apartment of her parents by a Honda City car of her friend after having dinner with some friends at a hotel, at around 11.30 pm. When she was sitting in the car and conversing with her friend in front of the building in which her parents live, Haider and his associates came in a Skoda car, scouted the area around, and threatened the girl's friend at knife point after getting down from their car. After that, Haider and his three friends got into the boy's car.
After forcing the girl into the back seat of the car, they took the car towards a deserted area and sexually harassed the girl in the backseat, it is said. Two other accused followed them in the Skoda car, the girl said.
At around 12.45 am, they took the car to near the railway tracks in Cox Town here. Three of the accused then forced the girl's friend out of the car, and took him away. Nasir then allegedly raped the girl, it is learnt. The gang demanded payment of Rs 50,000 from her friend, and after snatching a high-end wrist watch the student's friend was wearing, they sped away in the Skoda car, it is said.
Deputy commissioner of police, Satish, has ordered for a departmental inquiry against inspector of Pulikeshi Nagara station, Muhammed Rafiq Ahmed, and four other policemen of this station, for dereliction of duty. He has found that the policemen had erred in registering abduction and assault case instead of sexual harassment and rape.