NEW DELHI: Women Commission chairperson Lata Gupta on Monday condemned the gangrape of a 16-year-old girl inside a moving sleeper bus and said those responsible must be punished. “The person behind this must get punishment. Immediate action was taken with the arrest of the bus driver and conductor,” Gupta said while speaking to news agency ANI.Police has subsequently arrested Kuldeep and Sandeep from a bus parking area in Timarpur and seized the sleeper bus.“When a woman is facing any problem, if there is a lack of coordination among the agencies dealing with her case, it is the commission’s responsibility to improve that coordination, whether with the courts or the police administration,” she told news agency PTI.Teen boarded bus seeking help amid heavy rainThe Class 11 student from Uttar Pradesh was gangraped inside the bus after she boarded it seeking help while stranded in heavy rain, police said. The incident took place on the night of August 4 in Delhi, after the teenager, from Mainpuri district, left home following a disagreement with her family and set out to meet her cousin in Noida.According to police, the girl mistakenly got off at Pari Chowk amid heavy rain and darkness. An empty sleeper bus passing through the area stopped after she signalled for help. The driver, Kuldeep, and conductor, Sandeep, allegedly told her that the bus was headed towards Noida Sector 63 and allowed her to board.The bus then travelled nearly 47 kilometres towards Kashmere Gate. The accused allegedly abandoned the teenager on Ring Road near the Kashmere Gate bus terminal late at night and fled.The girl told police that both the driver and conductor raped her and threatened to kill her when she resisted.Bus company says duo were sent for repairsMonu Gupta, manager of the bus travel company that owns the vehicle, said the driver and conductor had been asked to take the bus to Timarpur for repairs. “We had asked the driver and conductor to take the bus to Timarpur for repair. The next morning, we received a call from the Administration; we were told that the bus had been seized and the driver and conductor were arrested,” he said.
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Gupta said both the driver and conductor were from rural Kanpur and had been working with the company for the past two years. “We have submitted their Aadhaar cards to the Police. They have been working here for the last two years,” he added.The driver and conductor have been arrested in connection with the case, and the bus has been seized as police continue their investigation.