Uttarakhand police on Sunday arrested five people for allegedly raping a teenager in a government bus at the Interstate Bus Terminal in Dehradun, news agency PTI reported.

Dehradun Superintendent of Police Ajay Singh said two other drivers and a cashier working at the Dehradun ISBT were also arrested.

The incident occurred on August 12, but the police were not informed until Saturday.

Police said the Dehradun Child Welfare Committee (CWC) was informed about a young girl sitting alone on a bench at the Dehradun ISBT late at night on August 12.

She was taken to the government-run Bal Niketan girls’ home where she informed the authorities about the alleged rape during a counselling session, PTI reported.

Subsequently, based on a complaint filed by a CWC member on Saturday, a First Information Report (FIR) under Section 70(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was registered at Patel Nagar police station.

The police then intervened, identified the bus through video surveillance cameras and arrested the five defendants.

The accused were identified as: Dharmendra Kumar (32) and Rajpal (57), both residents of Buggawala in Haridwar, Uttarakhand; Devendra (52), a resident of Bhagwanpur in Haridwar; Rajesh Kumar Sonkar (38), a resident of Dehradun; and Ravi Kumar (34), a resident of Nawabganj in Farrukhabad district of Uttar Pradesh.

While Dhamendra Kumar is the driver of the bus used in the incident and Devendra is the conductor, Ravi Kumar and Rajpal are the drivers of other buses while Sonkar is a cashier at the Uttarakhand Roadways bus stand, PTI added.

The girl initially told police that she was from Punjab and an orphan, but later during interrogation gave information about her family. She also told them that she lived in Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh and that she had first gone to Delhi and then taken a bus to Dehradun, where she was allegedly raped.

What the defendant told the police

Superintendent of Police Ajay Singh said one of the accused, Devendra, told police that he saw the girl at Kashmiri Gate ISBT in Delhi.

She asked him how she could reach Punjab, and Devendra suggested that she take a bus to Dehradun and then change to another bus to Punjab.

However, after the bus reached Dehradun and all the passengers got down, Devendra and driver Dharmendra allegedly raped her. He told police that two other drivers – Ravi and Rajpal – of the buses parked nearby also came to know about it. They also went into the bus and allegedly raped the teenager.

Devendra told the cashier about the incident when making the payment and is said to have then raped the girl on the bus.

(With inputs from PTI)