Delhi rape: Echoes of Nirbhaya after woman raped in moving car

A woman from Noida was reportedly raped in New Delhi on Thursday night in a car that sported credentials of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The victim subsequently lodged a complaint with the police, following which the suspect was tracked down and arrested.

The 20-year-old victim had gone from Noida to Delhi looking for a job and was waiting in Moti Bagh on Thursday night for a mode of transport to return home. That was when the vehicle bearing an MHA sticker — determined by the police to be fake — pulled up, and the suspect, who was driving it, offered her a lift. The girl told the police she was later raped in the car.

The local police told International Business Times, India on Friday afternoon that they had initially received the complaint on the intervening night of December 15 and 16, and subsequently registered a case in this regard. In her statement, the victim had named only one person as the accused. 

The investigating officer (IO) also confirmed that the sticker used on the vehicle by the accused was indeed fake, despite bearing a phone number and credentials from Krishi Bhawan, where the MHA is located. She also said a medical examination of the victim had confirmed that she had been raped. 

The IO refused to divulge the details of the manner in which the accused had been traced and arrested, but said that he was to be produced in court later in the day.

Echoes of Nirbhaya

The incident comes barely a day before the completion of four years of the brutal gang rape of a young woman named Jyoti Singh, who was initially called Nirbhaya by news outlets to preserve her privacy. The culprits, in that case, have been sentenced to death, and India has seen several legal reforms and schemes introduced following the case.