5 students held for rape sent to Tihar

Five Jamia Millia Islamia students, arrested for allegedly confining and gangraping a minor girl for over two months at their residence, were sent to 14-day judicial custody by a city court on Thursday. Metropolitan magistrate Nipun Awasthi sent accused Pulkit Chaudhary, Amandeep, Sharad Shekhar Tomar, Roopansu and Vikas Punia to Tihar Jail till December 20 after the police said they were no more required for custodial interrogation. The court said, “All accused are remanded to judicial custody till December 20.” The police had arrested the five boys, including three law students, after the mother of the 16-year-old victim lodged a complaint at the Defence Colony police station in south Delhi here on September 15. The girl’s mother had told the police that her daughter, who was studying in Class 11, had not returned home after attending her school on September 15. Initially, the police registered a case of kidnapping but after the girl was recovered earlier this month, she deposed that on September 15 she had accompanied one of her friends Amit Gautam to his flat here, where she was made captive and gangraped. The victim had told the police that she had gone to Amit’s flat in south Delhi to attend a party. She had also said that she came to know Amit through Facebook and they eventually became friends.