16-year-old allegedly raped by over 100 men, including cops, case registered
Pune: A 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped by over 100 men for a period of two years after being brought to Pune from West Bengal with the promise of a job.
According to a report, the girl who lived with her parents near Indo-Nepal border, was brought to Pune in 2014 and forced into prostitution. The girl managed to escape to Delhi last month and filed a complaint with the police, alleging that she was raped by over 100 people including cops.
The case was transferred to Pune police on Saturday and an FIR was registered against 113 people.
Police said that the minor victim lived with her grandmother and mother in Siliguri. Her mother became mentally unstable after the father abandoned them and the household was run on her grandmother’s income from a tea stall.
A man called Rohit Bhandari was a frequent visitor to the lady’s tea-stall where he spotted the minor. He promised the girl a job at a beauty parlour in Pune and took her along in January 2014. While the initial few days in the new city were uneventful, one day, Bhandari drugged the girl and raped her. From there, her horrifying ordeal began, as Bhandari forced her into having sex with multiple men. She was taken to various locations in the city and made to engage in sexual activity with different men.
According to the police, another accused, identified as Swikriti Kharel, a 26-year-old woman, would take the minor victim to different cities and forced her into flesh trade. The young girl was taken to Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Bhopal, where she was forced into having sex with men.
The girl also experienced physical abuse at the hands of those running the sex racket and was made to undergo an abortion once.
"The minor girl's medical test was conducted in Delhi. She has also given a statement before a metropolitan magistrate. We have arrested one accused, who has been remanded in police custody till April 22. We will move an application for custody of the four accused earlier arrested by Chandan Nagar police," a senior Delhi police official was quoted in the report.
The other accused were soon nabbed by the Pune police, including main accused Rohit Bhandari and Swikriti.
The minor’s plight came to light after a 24-year-old model who was being sexually exploited by the same people was hospitalised for treatment in Delhi and the hospital authorities reported it to the police.
It was the model who helped the minor escape from Pune and took her to the national capital with her. The Delhi police transferred the case to Pune police who have taken charge and investigation is on.
