NEW DELHI: Fog in Delhi can be more menacing than air travellers imagine. It can not only disrupt traffic, but as 17-year-old Mina Sarkar (name changed) discovered, but also scar lives.
Sarkar, a class XII student of the Harkishen Public School in West Delhi, was raped in a moving Mahindra Scorpio by three men, allegedly her neighbours, on Tuesday.
The incident took place at 4:30pm, a time ostensibly safe by even Delhi standards. But rain and fog had drastically diminished visibility when Sarkar was returning to her Janakpuri home from a coaching class in the neighbourhood.
Danger closed in on her in the darkness when the autorickshaw in which she was travelling broke down. The men, who had been following Sarkar from the coaching class, dragged her into the vehicle and allegedly raped her for seven hours.
The trio then dropped her outside her house around midnight. “We have conducted a medical examination of the girl and rape has been confirmed,” a police officer said.
Sarkar’s mother accompanied the girl when they filed a complaint at the Janakpuri police station. The victim’s father teaches in a university outside Delhi.
According to police, the vehicle in which Sarkar was raped has been impounded and all four accused have been arrested. They were identified as Devendra, a friend of the victim, Varun Poply, Varun Sehgal, and Balwinder. “All of them are in their early 20s and are businessmen,” an officer said. They are all Janakpuri residents.
“Rapes have actually gone down this year and we are doing our best in terms of deploying extra personnel for the New Year,” said KK Paul, police commissioner. “There are helplines available, but there is little we can do when the accused and the victim know each other.”
