23 men allegedly rape Delhi woman in Rajasthan’s Bikaner

Aparnesh Goswami, HT, Bikaner, 2 8 September 2017: A woman from Delhi has said she was raped by 23 men after being abducted from a road on the outskirts of Bikaner in the middle of the day.

The woman, 28, said she had gone to Ridmalsar Purohitan in Bikaner on September 25 to check on a plot that she owns. On her way back, she was waiting for transport near Khatu Shyam Mandir on the Jaipur Road at 2:30pm when two men allegedly dragged her into an SUV.

“They drove me around near some mines for several hours and repeatedly raped me in the vehicle,” she wrote in her complaint filed at the Jai Narayan Vyas Colony police station.

She said the two men raped her in car, and called up six others who also assaulted her. She was then taken to a government power substation in Palana village where more men allegedly assaulted her.

The FIR states that the two men left her at the spot from where she was picked up at around 4am on September 26. Police registered a case of rape on September 27 against two named suspects and 21 unidentified suspects.

Rajendra Singh, circle officer of Sadar, the investigating officer in the case, said police recovered condoms from the spots the woman identified in her complaint. “She has recorded her statement before a magistrate under section 164 of the CrPC and repeated what she wrote in the FIR,” he added.

Rajasthan reported the third-highest number of rape cases in the country, according to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The report said in 2015, 3,644 rape cases were registered in Rajasthan, making it the third most unsafe state for women after Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Harjindar Sing, station house officer of JNVC police station, told HT that the suspects indentified are Raju and Subhash. “We have got the woman’s medical examination done. The report is awaited,” he added.

The FIR mentions two mobile numbers that were dialled to call more men to rape the woman. She has also mentioned registration number of a vehicle.

Singh said the woman met the Bikaner police chief and her complaint came to the police station through the SP office.

Police have not arrested anyone in the case so far.