Four arrested in New Delhi after woman allegedly gang raped in moving car

VANCOUVER DESI/IANS

Activists participate in a protest against the gang rape and murder of a student in New Delhi on Feb. 7, 2013. The companion of the physiotherapy student who died after being gang raped on a bus in New Delhi Dec. 16, 2012 will be giving evidence in the trial of five adults accused of her murder. Raveendran/AFP/Getty Images

New Delhi — A woman, 24, was allegedly gang raped by four men, including an acquaintance, in Delhi’€™s Swaroop Nagar, police said Thursday.

All four suspected attackers have been arrested.

The case began when a police van tried to flag down a car with tinted windows, in the city’€™s Burari area. The car sped away after seeing the van but was later intercepted by other police vehicles and its occupants apprehended.

“€œThe car was chased, overtaken and all the accused were arrested around 2.53 a.m. Thursday, ”€ Deputy Commissioner of Police Sindhu Pillai said.

The accused were identified as Mohammed Shakil, 23, Mohammed Irshad, 30, Mohammed Abid, 21, and Lajpatrai Sachdeva, 38.

The victim told police that she was first gang raped at New Delhi’s Swaroop Nagar and was assaulted again later in the moving car.

“€œThe victim, who knows Shakil, had gone to meet him in Swaroop Nagar Wednesday night. The accused was present with his three other friends, who took her to a nearby Uttarakhand Colony and gang raped her,”€ said Pillai.

“After committing the crime, the accused bundled the victim into a car and were heading towards Burari,”€ he added.

“€œThe medical report of the victim confirmed rape. A case against the accused has been registered,” he concluded.

The victim reportedly hails from 24-Parganas district in West Bengal and stays with her brother-in-law in Sector-16 of the capital’€™s Rohini area.

The incident occurs nearly two months after the fatal gang rape of a physiotherapy student, 23, in the capital that outraged the nation and led to what was believed to be renewed focus in enforcing the country’s rape and sexual crime legislation. The trial in that case began earlier this week.

Tags: gang rape, New Delhi, Swaroop Nagar