35-year-old factory worker gang-raped by 5 near NH-24

A 35-year-old factory worker was allegedly gang raped by five men and her brother beaten up at an isolated stretch near Vijay Nagar on Friday night. The two were returning from Noida after work when the incident occurred.

Due to traffic on National Highway 24, her brother took the unmetalled road in Avas Vikas residential area. They had taken the alternative route from NH-24 in order to reach home quickly and avoid the congested highway.

The victim works at a garment factory in sector-63 Noida and was returning home to Ghaziabad along with her brother on a bike. According to her complaint, they were travelling via NH-24 after getting off from work around 8.30pm.

“When we moved further, it was around 9.30pm and there was a long traffic jam on the highway. My brother decided to take the bike along an isolated route to reach home quickly. Five men spotted us and stopped our bike. They beat up my brother and forced me into a dense area covered with vegetation where they raped me. They threatened us with a knife and asked us not to raise our voices,” the victim said in her complaint. “I have never seen the men before and they were unidentified,” she said.

She said she also lost her mobile phone during the incident and suspected that it could be with the assailants.

Following the incident, the woman approached the Vijay Nagar police station on Saturday morning and filed a complaint. The police lodged an FIR of gang rape and ,criminal intimidation.

“Following the FIR, the woman was sent for medical examination. We have launched an investigation,” said Salman Taj, superintendent of police at Ghaziabad.

The police said that the victim is a mother of three.

Officials said that they will also question the victim and her brother as to why they delayed lodging the FIR since the incident was serious in nature.

“The medical examination of the victim has been conducted and the reports are awaited,” a police officer said.

There have been several incidents of rape, especially involving minor girls in Ghaziabad recently. Two rape cases of minors came to light recently under Niwari and Bhojpur police station areas. In one of the incidents, a 6-year-old r was murdered after being raped by a 35-year-old man.