A 16-year-old Class 11 student from Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri district was allegedly gang-raped inside a moving sleeper bus during a 47-kilometre ordeal, police said on Monday. Delhi Police have arrested the driver, Kuldeep, and conductor, Sandeep, in connection with the crime.
The incident occurred on the night of August 4. According to investigators, the teenager had left her home without informing her family following an argument with her mother over studies. She was travelling to meet her cousin in Noida Sector 63. However, amid heavy rain and darkness, she accidentally got off at Pari Chowk in Greater Noida.
Stranded and seeking assistance, the girl sought a lift from an empty UP-registered sleeper bus. The vehicle’s driver and conductor allegedly misled her by claiming they were heading toward Noida Sector 63. In reality, the empty bus was returning to a parking lot in North Delhi's Timarpur after undergoing mechanical repairs at a workshop in Surajpur, Greater Noida.
Once the girl boarded, the bus moved toward Delhi. She alleged that the conductor soon began making obscene advances toward her. Both men then sexually assaulted her inside the vehicle and threatened to kill her if she resisted. Investigators noted that the bus's sleeper berths were fitted with curtains, which concealed the crime during the journey.
After driving nearly 47 kilometres, the accused abandoned the teenager near the Ring Road close to the Kashmere Gate Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT) in Old Delhi and fled the scene.
The victim approached the Kashmere Gate police station to report the crime. Following her medical examination and statement recording, police registered an FIR detailing gang rape, kidnapping, and criminal intimidation.
Analysing CCTV footage along the route, a police team led by Kotwali ACP Shankar Banerjee tracked the vehicle's movement and arrested both suspects from a parking area in Timarpur. The bus has been seized for forensic testing, during which team members recovered physical evidence, including biological samples and strands of hair.
The two accused were remanded to judicial custody after undergoing medical testing. Following counselling by female officers and Child Welfare Committee procedures, the survivor was safely reunited with her family.
