Cops hunt three for drugging and raping teen

NEW DELHI: Police were hunting for three men who allegedly drugged, kidnapped and raped a teenage girl while she was on her way to a testpreparation course in northern India earlier this week, in yet another incident of rising crimes against women.

Police officer Ashwini Kumar said the victim is in stable condition in a hospital in Haryana state and police have recorded her statement.

Violent crime against women has been on the rise in India despite tough laws enacted five years ago.

The Press Trust of India news agency quoted her father as saying she named three suspects who abducted her from a bus stop on Wednesday, but felt that eight to 10 persons could have been in a village home where she was raped.

Indian media reports said the suspects were believed to be from her village and known to her.

They dropped her later in their car at the pickup point in Mahendragarh, a town about 145km southwest of New Delhi.

Kumar said the police knew the identity of the suspects, but they had switched off their phones and were evading arrests.

The teenage victim suffered injuries on her back, shoulders and private parts, The Times of India newspaper reported.

India has been shaken by a series of sexual assaults since 2012, when a student was gangraped and murdered on a moving New Delhi bus.

That attack galvanised a country where widespread violence against women had long been quietly accepted.

While the government has passed a series of laws increasing punishment for rape of an adult to 20 years in prison, it’s rare for more than a few weeks to pass without another brutal sexual assault being reported.

Responding to widespread outrage over the recent rape and killings of young girls and other attacks on children, India’s government in April approved the death penalty for people convicted of raping children under age 12.