A 'stop violence against women' poster is seen
Credit: PTI Photo
Bengaluru: A 19-year-old girl from Bihar was allegedly dragged to a deserted spot in East Bengaluru’s KR Puram and raped by a man from Kolar on Wednesday. His accomplice assaulted her brother, the police said.
The police have arrested the suspect, Asif, 29, and his accomplice, Syed, 24, both from Mulbagal in Kolar. The police said the suspects had no steady jobs and worked as auto-rickshaw drivers and labourers.
Syed
Asif
The incident occurred around 1.30 am on Wednesday near the KR Puram railway station.
The victim, who had recently quit her job at a cardamom farm in Kerala, boarded a train to Bengaluru on Tuesday morning. A fellow passenger at the Ernakulam railway station had advised her to travel via Bengaluru to reach Bihar.
According to the police, she arrived at the KR Puram railway station around 1.20 am, where her maternal cousin was waiting to receive her.
“During the journey, she had called her brother in Bengaluru for help in boarding a train to Bihar. He reached the station around 1.10 am,” an investigator told DH.
Before boarding the next train, the siblings stepped out of the station to get food.
Shivakumar Gunare, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Whitefield), told DH that the suspects, who were sitting in an auto-rickshaw, spotted the victim and her brother walking and decided to follow them. They intercepted them a few hundred meters away from the railway station.
Preliminary investigations revealed that Asif dragged the woman to a poorly lit area while Syed assaulted her brother. Asif allegedly raped the victim, while Syed continued attacking her brother. Passersby heard her screams and rushed to the spot.
According to investigators, bystanders caught one of the suspects and called the police helpline. Beat police arrived almost immediately and detained Asif, while a Hoysala patrol vehicle reached soon after.
Ramesh Banoth, Additional Commissioner (East), told DH that Syed initially fled, but was traced and arrested by 9 am the same day.
A Bengaluru court has remanded the suspects to police custody for interrogation to ascertain their backgrounds and whether they were intoxicated at the time of the incident.
The suspects have been booked under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including sections 64 (rape), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 126(2) (wrongful restraint), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach of peace), 3(5) (joint criminal liability for acts committed with common intention).
The police said the woman moved to Kerala a month ago to work as a labourer on the farm. Unhappy with the job, she decided to return home to Bihar and travelled to Bengaluru to catch a train.