3 held for rape of DU student, friend in park

A DELHI University student and his friend, Bangladeshi nationals in their twenties, from the LGBTQ community, were allegedly gangraped and assaulted by five men in a park in East Delhi. Police Thursday said they arrested three of the five accused in the case and are investigating the matter.

Theincidenttookplaceinthe earlyhoursofwednesdaywhen thecomplainantshadgonetoattend a fair near their home.

Police said the complainants knew one of the accused as they met on a dating app a while back.

Accordingtopolice, apcrcall about the incident was made around 1 am. Police said they went to the complainant’s house, where the DU student saidheliveswithafriendwhois a student from Bihar. The duo had invited another friend.

Additional DCP (East) Achin Garg said, “All three men are membersofthelgbtqcommunity. Thecomplainantfurtherallegedthathemetaman,‘x’, ona datingappandwasinarelationship with him.”

On Tuesday night, the two complainants left the house to attend the fair.

“Around 11.30 pm, X, who was accompanied by two other friends, met the complainants (atapark)... Aftersometime, two more friends of X joined them. Thefivemenstartedbeatingthe complainants, allforcedthemto have sex,” Garg said.

After the incident, the complainantstoldtheirfriendabout the assault, who called police.

Investigators said the complainantsweretakentothehospital and medically examined, afterwhichacaseundersections ofcausinghurtandunnaturaloffences was registered.

Garg saida teamof 20 police personnel were deployed to arrest the accused.

“The complainants didn’t knowtheidentityoftheaccused persons and their addresses. More than 50 CCTVS were scanned... Within the next 12 hours, we were able to identify the accused,” he said.

Police said the arrested men are residents of the same locality. ‘X’, and a minor who was also involved, are on the run, added police.