New Delhi, 14 May

A 30-year-old married woman returning home from work in northwest Delhi's Mangolpuri area was allegedly dragged inside a private sleeper bus and gang-raped by the driver and conductor, police said on Thursday. The two men have been arrested.

The assault, which recalled the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape-murder that shook the country, took place on 11 May. The arrests took place the following day.

Recapping the events of the night, police sources said the woman was returning home after working at a factory in the Mangolpuri area. When she reached near the B-Block bus stand in Saraswati Vihar, she saw a man standing near the bus door and asked him the time. He then allegedly dragged her inside the bus and drove the vehicle towards Nangloi and raped her.

According to the statement of the woman, who is married and has three children, both men raped her in turn.

The bus was stationed near the Nangloi Metro Station while the woman was attacked, a police officer told PTI.

The bus has been seized.

"We received information at Rani Bagh Police Station regarding the alleged rape of a woman. Her statement was recorded immediately, and an FIR was registered without delay," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Vikram Singh said in a video statement.

Based on the woman's statement, an FIR was registered under sections 64(1) (rape), 70(1) (gang-rape) and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on 12 May, the DCP said.

Police first received information about the incident in a PCR call by a woman who alleged that she had been sexually assaulted by two men.

Multiple teams were constituted to nab the accused. While one man was arrested immediately after the FIR was registered, the other was nabbed four hours later.

"Both the accused were produced before a city court and sent to judicial custody. Our teams are further investigating the matter from all possible angles. Teams are collecting every single CCTV footage to make a strong case against the accused," a police officer said.

Investigators are also probing whether the bus had automatic doors.

"We learned nothing from Nirbhaya. This incident is a stain on the entire society," former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on X.

His Aam Aadmi Party also likened the incident to the Nirbhaya case and said it was a "big shame".

In a post on X, Delhi AAP chief Saurabh Bharadwaj condemned the incident.

"Big Shame - Nirbhaya repeated. A 30-year-old woman was picked up in the bus at night on the pretext of asking the time. Then she was raped by multiple people in the moving bus for around 2 hours. Bus kept moving in the Rani Bagh area of Delhi covering 7 km," he said.