Nagpur: A 15-year-old girl, student of Standard IX, was gangraped by three of her neighbours at an isolated place near Wathoda chowk in the wee hours of Friday. Nandanvan police have registered offences against five for their alleged involvement, including three aged 14 to 16 years, who had lured the girl for an outing but ended up sexually exploiting her.
Police said four out of five involved in the case were minors. Rahul Wadve, 19, has been arrested while three of his minor accomplices were sent to the government remand home. One of the culprits is yet to be nabbed. Wadve, close to survivor Sunita (hers and all minors’ name changed), worked as a driver. The teenagers are all neighbours at Wathoda.
Sunita was lured by one of her friends Rani while returning from school on Thursday. She was promised they would return soon by the friend. At around 7pm, police said that Sunita and Rani met Sonu, one of the minor culprits in the case. It is learnt that the friends also wanted to settle an issue among themselves apart from going for an outing in the vicinity. The minor summoned another friend Imran. Meanwhile, another girl Suman joined them. The four walked towards Gopal Krishna Lawn at Wathoda.
Later in the evening Sunita and four others met Rahul and two of his minor friends, Sumit and Sanket. Rahul already knew Sunita. Sources said they were close as friends. There was another minor to whom Sunita was close too. Suman, meanwhile, left for home. The others spent rest of the evening hanging out then Rani left too. Police said around 3.30 am, the group moved behind a hardware shop with Sunita to settle differences with each other. It is learnt Sunita was close to Sumit too. Imran and Sonu decided to stay outside to keep a watch.
Rahul and Sumit are learnt to have forced themselves upon Sunita behind the hardware shop. It was below the stairs that Sunita was exploited by two of her friends. Sanket too joined Rahul and Sumit to savage Sunita before the girl was allowed to return home.
Since Sunita had not come home, her family had registered a missing complaint at Nandanvan police station the evening before. She was brought to Nandanvan police station on Saturday by family who wanted to register an offence against the five. Senior PI SD Mahadik of Nandanvan police station said the medical examination of the girl had been conducted.
PSI Priti Kulmethe, probing the case, said Rahil has been remanded to the custody of Nandanvan police station till March 3. “The culprits have not revealed much as of now but we are set to unearth more facts in the case,” she said.
