MP: 16-year-old girl raped in ‘108’ ambulance; main accused, driver held

Mauganj (MP), Nov 29 (PTI) A 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped in a moving ambulance in Mauganj district of Madhya Pradesh, police have said.

The alleged crime in the ambulance being operated under '108' emergency service took place on November 22 and two of the four accused in the case, including the driver, have been arrested, they said.

The girl, accompanied by her sister and brother-in-law, was travelling in the ambulance (none of them was a patient), said Deputy Inspector General (Rewa Range) Saket Pandey on Thursday.

Besides the trio, the driver and his associate were inside the patient transport vehicle, he said.

Pandey told PTI that the minor along with her sister and brother-in-law, both later charged with aiding the crime, set off for their destination in the ambulance whose driver was known to them.

En route, the girl's sister and her brother-in-law got down from the vehicle on the pretext of fetching water. Instead of waiting for the couple, the ambulance driver sped away, said the officer.

Later, the driver's associate travelling with him, Rajesh Kewat, raped her in the moving ambulance at Sunsan village on November 22, he added.

After keeping the girl hostage for the whole night, the two accused dumped her on the roadside the next morning, the DIG said.

On reaching home, the survivor narrated the ordeal to her mother, who for two days did not approach police, fearing the incident would tarnish the family's image in society, according to the IPS officer.

The teenager and her mother finally approached the police on November 25 following which a case was registered against four people (aged 25 to 30 years), including Kewat, on their complaint, Pandey said.

He said the ambulance driver Virendra Chaturvedi and Kewat, the alleged rapist, were arrested on Wednesday.

A hunt has been launched to apprehend the girl's sister and brother-in-law, who have been charged with abetting the crime, said the IPS officer.

All the accused have been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. PTI