Rahul Gandhi attacks Centre, UP government over Noida minor gang-rape case

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday criticised the Centre and Uttar Pradesh government over the alleged gang-rape of a minor in a moving bus in Noida, saying there was little possibility of accountability being fixed for the police under Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said Delhi-NCR had become unsafe for women, citing the alleged gang-rape of a minor girl for 47 km in a sleeper bus travelling from Greater Noida to Delhi.

Gandhi said it was surprising that neither Delhi Police nor Noida Police had any information about the incident. 

It's astonishing that neither the entire Delhi police nor the Noida police had the slightest inkling of it, Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X. 

He said the bus crossed the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, Delhi's Ring Road and the border without being stopped at any checkpoint. He also alleged that curtains covering the bus seats prevented anyone from seeing what was happening inside.

"This bus crossed the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, Delhi's Ring Road, the border -- all of it -- without being stopped even once at a single checkpoint. Curtains were drawn over the bus seats so no one could see what was happening inside. And the perpetrators had no fear of the administration whatsoever," he said.

Gandhi questioned why rules for checking and monitoring such buses were still not being followed despite the passage of several years since the Nirbhaya case and several similar incidents.

He said the curtains inside the bus reflected what he described as repeated attempts by the government to cover up failures in the administration.

"Those curtains weren't just drawn on that one bus - it is the result of curtains being drawn year after year by the government over the administration's failures, leaving women unable even to take a safe journey in the country's capital," the former Congress chief said. 

Gandhi asked how many more women and girls would have to suffer before the central and state governments addressed the issue.

"Will there be any accountability for the Delhi Police under Amit Shah, or the UP Police under Adityanath? Not a chance - this crime, too, will just have a curtain drawn over it," he said.

According to police, a 16-year-old girl boarded a sleeper bus in Greater Noida on a rainy night earlier this month and was allegedly gang-raped by its conductor and driver before being abandoned near Kashmere Gate, more than 40 km away in Old Delhi.

The two accused have been arrested, police said, adding that the alleged rape took place while the bus was moving.

The incident occurred on the night of August 4 and brought back memories of the 2012 gang-rape and murder in Delhi, known as the Nirbhaya case.

Police said the girl, who is from Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh, had left home after being scolded by her mother. She then boarded a bus to travel to Noida Sector 63, where her cousin lives. 

She mistakenly got off at Pari Chowk in Greater Noida amid heavy rain around 9 pm, the Class 11 student told police.

After realising that she was still around 25 km from her cousin's residence, the girl began looking for transport. A bus then stopped near her.

According to police, the conductor told her that the bus was going towards Sector 63 and would drop her there. Believing him, she boarded the bus.

The bus was not operating as a regular passenger service that night, according to investigators and the travel company that operated it.

The bus had been taken to a workshop in Surajpur, Greater Noida, for repairs after developing a technical fault.

According to investigators, the two accused collected the bus from the workshop around 5 pm and began travelling around 9 pm.

They travelled from Surajpur to Pari Chowk, where they allegedly picked up the girl on the pretext of giving her a lift before heading towards Kashmere Gate.

In her complaint, the girl alleged that the driver and conductor gang-raped her while the bus was travelling.

The girl was allegedly abandoned at Kashmere Gate. She then took an auto-rickshaw to a police station.

In a video statement, DCP (North) Niharika Bhatt said Delhi Police registered an FIR and launched a search to arrest the accused, without getting into any jurisdiction issue.  (with inputs from PTI)