Drugged, sexually assaulted for 7 days by 23 men: 19-year-old girl gang-raped in Varanasi, six arrested

Drugged, sexually assaulted for 7 days by 23 men: 19-year-old girl gang-raped in Varanasi, six arrested

A 19-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by 23 men in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh over the span of seven days, from March 29 and April 4, the UP police said.

Out of the 23 accused, six men have been detained by the police so far. According to the police, the girl, studying in class 12, went missing from her home when a friend took her to a hookah bar in the Pishachmochan area of Varanasi on March 29. She returned home on April 4 and reported the incident to her family, who then contacted the police.

“As per her statement, on March 29, a friend took her to a hookah bar in the Pishachmochan area, where other men also joined. The girl alleged that she was drugged with a spiked cold drink and then taken to different hotels in the Sigra area, where she was gang-raped,” India Today quoted a senior police official as saying.

The girl alleged that she was held captive and sexually assaulted by 23 men continuously for seven days. DCP Varuna Zone, Chandrakant Mina, said on Monday that an FIR was lodged on the complaint of her mother. The charges were filed under section 70(1) (gang rape), 74 (outraging modesty), 123 (administering poison or harmful substance), 126(2) (obstructing movement), 127(2) (wrongful confinement), and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against all accused.

ACP Cantt, Vidush Saxena, stated that following the initial investigation, six accused were arrested, and further legal formalities were underway. More teams are engaged in arresting the other accused.

According to the report, some of the accused were her social media friends while some were former classmates. In the complaint, the mother alleged that her daughter encountered one of the accused, who took her to his cafe and raped her overnight.

On March 30, the victim encountered an accused and his friend on the road. They took her on their motorcycle towards the highway, where they raped her and later abandoned her at Nadesar. On March 31, she met five other men who took her to a restaurant in Maldahiya, drugged her, and gang-raped her, TOI reported.

On April 1, one of the accused and his friend brought her to a hotel where three others were present. She was forced to massage a client, during which an unknown man raped her. After leaving the hotel, another man forcibly took her to a different hotel and raped her before leaving her outside.

Subsequently, one of the accused and two others took her to a warehouse in Aurangabad, where she was raped again. She was later moved to another room where two more individuals sexually assaulted her. She managed to escape and sat outside a mall in Sigra. On April 2, two men approached her there, offered her drugged noodles, and one of them raped her before abandoning her at Assi Ghat.

On April 3, the victim went to a friend's house and fell asleep due to the lingering effects of intoxicants. That evening, she met Danish and his friend, who took her to a hotel where Sohel, Shoaib, and another man were present. They drugged and raped her before leaving her at Chowkaghat. On April 4, she returned home.