NEW DELHI — The police said Sunday that a 29-year-old woman had been raped by a bus driver, a conductor and five other men in the northern Indian state of Punjab in an episode that recalls the recent attack in Delhi that has caused widespread outrage.
The woman in the Punjab attack boarded a bus on Friday bound for Gurdaspur to visit her in-laws, the police chief of Gurdaspur, Raj Jit Singh, said in a telephone interview. When she got off the bus, the driver offered her a ride on his motorcycle, perhaps to her in-laws’ village, the police said. Instead, he took her to a nearby village, where he and six other men, including the bus conductor, raped her repeatedly through the night.
The next morning, the driver dropped her at her in-laws’ home, where the woman told family members of the rape and then reported it to the police, Mr. Singh said.
Six men, including the bus driver and conductor, have been arrested, he said. All of the men are their 20s.
Gurmesh Singh, the deputy police superintendent for the region, said it was unclear how or why the bus driver persuaded the woman to go with him on his motorcycle. She was in a state of distress during the bus ride, Mr. Singh said, and originally refused to get off the bus when it reached its destination.
The Press Trust of India reported that the bus driver did not stop when requested.
The gang rape of a woman on a bus in New Delhi on Dec. 16, and her death from injuries sustained during the attack, has led to widespread protests and calls for increased policing and tougher laws against sexual assault in India.
The evidence against five of the men arrested in the New Delhi rape is being heard this month in a special fast-track court created for sexual assault cases.
India Ink: Woman Raped by Seven Men in Punjab, Police Say
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India Ink: Woman Raped by Seven Men in Punjab, Police Say
