CHANDIGARH – In statement to cops, victim says the two accused threatened to recreate Delhi gangrape if she didn’t keep mum.
“They claimed to have a target of raping 1,000 girls,” said the 21-year-old woman about the two men who gangraped her at knifepoint in a forested area of Sector 29 on December 12.
In her statement to the police, the BA fifth-semester student, who also works part time at a call centre, said both the accused, including an auto-rickshaw operator, told her to remain quiet as they committed the heinous crime, threatening to recreate the bone-chilling December 16 Delhi gangrape that had shook the nation four years ago.
“They shot my video and allowed me to leave the spot after half an hour. They said if I tell anyone about the incident, they would upload my video on the internet and spoil my reputation,” said the victim in her police statement.
On the fateful evening, after completing her work, the woman hired an auto-rickshaw from Piccadily Chowk (Sector 21/22/34/35) for home at 7:58pm.
She told the police another person was already sitting in the three-wheeler. Moving on the Madhya Marg, after jumping the signal at Government Medical College and Hospital light point (Sector 29/30/31/32), the auto driver took the slip road in Sector 29 and stopped the vehicle at an abandoned spot (beyond the iron and steel market), pretending to repair it.
As she sat their unsuspecting, the driver approached her, covered her mouth with his hands and pulled her out of the auto while the other man pushed them into a ditch (in the forested area).
After raping her and shooting the video, the accused took the victim to Tribune Chowk (Sector 29/31/Industrial Area) and asked her to go home.
The woman hired another auto from there to reach home. She told the police that her mobile phone was also left at the crime spot.
Deeply shocked after the incident, the victim was unable to inform the police immediately. She first narrated the incident to her mother, following which the police control room (PCR) was informed at 7am the next day.
The victim has identified the accused auto-rickshaw driver before the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), East.
The police had arrested Wasim Malik, 26, a resident of Transit Housing Colony, Sector 52, on Saturday (December 17), following which he was sent to the Burail jail. During the identification parade conducted on Sunday, the victim identified him.
Police are yet to identify the other accused besides recovering the auto-rickshaw. They have sought Wasim’s seven-day police remand from a local court. The plea will be decided on Tuesday.
A case was registered against the duo under Section 376-D (gangrape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on December 13.
