Drugged, raped over 6 days by 23 across hotels: 19-year-old’s horrific gang rape in Varanasi

The alleged gangrape of a 19-year-old woman at the hands of 23 men over a period of six days has sent shockwaves across the entire country, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepping in and ordering officials to take the ‘strictest action’ against the accused.

According to the complaint, the survivor was gang raped by 23 men at multiple locations between March 29 and April 4. The survivor’s family had filed a complaint with the police in this regard on April 6.

Police had earlier said that a case was registered under sections 70(1)(gang rape), 74 (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 123 (causing hurt by means of poison, etc., with intent to commit an offence), 126(2) (wrongful restraint), 127(2) (wrongful confinement) and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

So far, police have arrested 12 of the 23 accused in the case. These men have been identified as Raj Vishwakarma, Sameer, Ayush, Sohail, Danish, Anmol, Sajid, Zahir, Imran, Jaib, Aman and Raj Khan, a news agency PTI reported.

‘Drugged, taken to several hotels, raped’

Additional commissioner of police, Cantonment, Vidush Saxena, said that the 19-year-old woman had gone out with some youths on March 29 and when she did not return home, a missing persons report was filed by her family on April 4.

While she did not mention anything about the rape to the police when she was rescued, her family lodged a complain alleging gangrape on April 6.

On March 29, the survivor had gone to her friend’s home, her mother said in the complaint. “On the way back home, she met a boy named Raj Vishwakarma, who took her to his cafe in Lanka, where he and his other friend did ‘bad acts’ with her”.

She alleged that the next day, on March 30, the victim met a boy named Sameer, who was on a bike with his friends. He reportedly took her to a highway on his bike and did a ‘bad act’ with her on the vehicle itself, the mother alleged in her complaint. Sameer left the survivor at Nadesar.

On March 31, a boy named Ayush, along with his five friends named Sohail, Danish, Anmol, Sajid and Zahir, took her to Sigra’s Continental Cafe. There, they made her consume intoxicating drinks and then took turns to rape her.

The next day, on April 1, one Sajid and his friend took the survivor to a hotel, where two to three other people were present. The survivor’s mother alleged that there a man raped her before throwing her out.

While being on the way from that place, the victim met Imran. He also took her to a hotel and raped her after getting her intoxicated with some drinks. However, when she screamed, he left her outside the hotel.

On April 2, a man named Raj Khan took the survivor to his house in Hukulganj and tried to rape her after drugging her. When she screamed, the youths took her and left her at Assi Ghat in an inebriated condition.

The next day, on April 3, a man identified as Danish took her to his friend’s room and there Sohail, Shoaib and one other person drugged the victim. They raped her and then left her near Chowkghat.

When the survivor finally made it home on April 4, she told her family about her ordeal.

PM Modi orders ‘strictest action possible’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday was briefed in detail by officials on the alleged gang rape of the 19-year-old in his constituency.

A statement from the Uttar Pradesh government said that the police commissioner, divisional commissioner and district magistrate on the “recent criminal rape incident in the city”.

“He instructed them to take the strictest possible action against the culprits and to implement appropriate measures to prevent such incidents in the future,” it said.