Ganganagar: On 22 June, Gomti Devi (name changed) reached the police station hurriedly with much anxiety. She had her reasons. Her 13-year-old daughter was missing for the past four days.
Seated inside the police station was a girl whom she couldn’t recognise at the first glance.
“I rushed to the police station (after getting a call) where I saw a girl wearing a crop top, jeans, dark lipstick and a lot of make up. They told me that she was my daughter, but I could not recognise her,” she told ThePrint.
It was not until the girl showed her dupatta that she finally realised that the teenager was her own daughter. That was the moment when the world came crashing down for Gomti Devi, who barely ekes out a living with her husband, a daily migrant wage earner originally from Haryana.
The girl was gangraped allegedly by over two dozen men for four days. Police had rescued her from a hotel where she was held captive. Twenty-one suspects, including hotel owners and managers, have been arrested so far.
“When we received the information of a missing girl, we shared her photographs as per protocol. In a few minutes, a similar looking photo but with make up was found to be circulating among men in the town which was accessed by our beat staff,” Additional Superintendent of Police (Sri Ganganagar) Deepak Kumar told ThePrint.
Raids were conducted in several hotels, and she was rescued from Joy Inn. “When we reached the spot, we found her lying inside a room and being kept under watch of a cleaning staff of the hotel,” the senior officer said.
The minor was taken to a hospital where the doctor informed the police of her multiple injuries and profuse bleeding from her private parts. “Her medico-legal test confirmed that she was gangraped. After primary treatment she was released and handed over to her family,” Kumar told The Print.
Taking cognisance of the case, the National Commission for Women (NCW) directed the Ganganagar district magistrate and superintendent of police to submit a comprehensive Action Taken Report within 15 days.
The district administration, meanwhile, has demolished three hotels, including Joy Inn, to send a tough message to owners of such properties. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) is looking into the case that has sent shockwaves in Sri Ganganagar.
The fateful ride
Given the family’s bare earnings, Gomti Devi lives in a modest brick house with two daughters. The rape survivor is the younger of the two. Meanwhile, her husband often remains out of home given the nature of his work as a daily wage earner.
The minor had gone missing on 18 June, an ordeal that began after she had gone to meet a person who used to earlier work around her home. She had befriended him on Instagram.
Gomti clearly remembers the incidents leading to her realising that her daughter was missing from the house. With fresh milk and a packet of biscuits, she had left for home after a nearly 10-hour shift to be with her daughter. “I keep sipping tea at my workplace, but my child does not. So, I was more than happy to make some hot tea for her (at home),” she told ThePrint.
The main door was wide open when she reached the house. But her call went unanswered, she recalled. She searched both the rooms of the house and the bathroom, but there was no trace of her daughter.
Gomti then rushed out of the home, screaming her daughter’s name. “I thought she might have gone to her friend’s house. When I couldn’t find her anywhere, my chest began to feel heavy,” she told The Print.
“Neighbours said that maybe she had run away, but I did not believe that. We went to a police station and informed them that my daughter was missing,” she said. For the next four days, Gomti recalls struggling to eat or drink anything. “Bas uski shakal samne ati thi aur lagta tha woh mujhe bula rahi hai (Her face kept coming in my thoughts and I felt that she was trying to reach out to me).”
Piecing together the clues and inputs, the police found that the minor had gone out to meet Gurjeet, a car decorator, in Vijaynagar on 18 June. Gurjeet is now in police custody.
“She told us that she had known him, but only spoke to him on Instagram and upon his request she went to meet him,” said Kumar. “He took her to a secluded spot and forced himself on her. When he realised that she was upset over it, he made her board a bus to Sri Ganganagar and left her there.”
In the evening when the girl alighted from the bus and waited at the bus stop for an auto, she was approached by an auto driver, Rambabu, who promised to drop her home.
“I told him the location of my house and he promptly agreed. After a few minutes he stopped in front of a hotel and informed me that he had some work and would be back in a couple of minutes,” the minor told The Print.
The driver allegedly went inside the hotel and emerged a few minutes later. “I kept telling him ‘ki mujhe der ho rahi hai’ (I am getting late) and that my mother would be worried,” she said.
All she remembers is that her eyes were open but could barely feel anything or protest. “People and their actions flashed before my eyes but they had used some substance to weaken me and dragged me from that auto to Joy Inn,” she recalled.
The police told The Print, that after recording the minor’s statement, they are awaiting the forensic reports to determine if she was drugged.
Initial probe indicated that Rambabu took the minor to Joy Inn where he stayed with her till 3 a.m. on 19 June. “He sexually assaulted her and then left her in the room after talking with Mayank, the manager of Joy Inn,” said Kumar.
Mayank sexually assaulted her next, according to the police. The manager allegedly then dressed the minor in objectionable clothes and put make up on her. “He then began taking photographs which he circulated among his clients,” the Additional Superintendent of Police added.
It was one of these photos in circulation that came to the notice of a beat officer, who found similarities between the missing teenager and the decked up girl. “Our beat officer then promptly informed us and the search began,” the senior officer said.
On putting together the statements of the minor, CCTV footage of the hotel and prolonged interrogation of Mayank and Joy Inn operator Hardeep, the police learnt that between 18 and 22 June, the minor was moved from Joy Inn to Hotel Dream and Hotel Sapphire, where several men raped her.
All three hotels were located in crowded and busy streets with high footfall. The Print also learnt that a traffic police officer does round-the-clock monitoring right outside Hotel Dream.
“Mayank and Hardeep were charging somewhere between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000 from each client, a cut from which was given to the managers in the other two hotels,” the Additional SP said. As per the investigation, over 25 people had raped the minor between 18 June and 22 June, all posing as visitors at the three hotels.
The 21 people arrested include Gurjeet and his friend who drove them on a bike in Vijaynagar, auto driver Mayank who orchestrated the four-day long ordeal, and Tarun who took the minor from one hotel to another.
Several other ‘clients’—men between the age of 19 and 55—have been arrested. A thorough investigation is underway to arrest the remaining accused who have been at large since the probe began.
The accused have been booked under Sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) related to gang rape, rape of female minors, kidnapping, as well as the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and the Juvenile Justice Act.
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A second FIR
Meanwhile, there have been unease and protest over videos being widely circulated in which rumours are being spread that the rape survivor has died. Two videos, in particular, have made the police administration come out with a statement that they are fake and misleading.
Taking cognisance of the viral videos, the police filed a second FIR on 4 July. In the FIR accessed by The Print, the police noted that a user by the name of Satyanewstoday was sharing a fake video. “This directly or indirectly poses a threat to the identification of the minor,” read the FIR.
The police have booked the user of Satyanewstoday and several other social media accounts under Section 73 of the BNS that makes it a punishable offense to print or publish details regarding court proceedings in sensitive cases, such as sexual assault, without prior permission from the presiding court. In addition, the police also invoked the POCSO Act and the IT Act.
Fallout
The gangrape had drawn wide outrage in this part of Rajasthan. “This is a small town where everyone seems to know each other. In such a place how was a little girl forcefully taken to a hotel, and then to other hotels without alerting anyone?” asked Kamla Bishnoi, state general secretary of the Congress.
The opposition party has hit the streets to ensure justice for the rape survivor. “The police have been active and prompt in arresting the accused, but our demand is that they should not be given bail and that the government gives compensation to the family to ensure a better future for the child,” she told ThePrint.
A spinoff of this case has been the widescale anger of the local residents against the steady growth of “unauthorised hotels”, snowballing into the demand for demolition of the properties involved in the henious crime.
Located close to the India-Pakistan boder, the town attracts tourists who arrive here for its ancient forts and temples to bustling markets. Hotels and inns have mushroomed over the years.
“On 1 July, Joy Inn, Hotel Dream and Hotel Sapphire were demolished and we have launched a deeper probe into the workings of all these hotels,” said Additional SP Kumar.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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