Bulandshahr gang-rape would not have happened had UP Police reached on time: Victims

Lucknow: Despite big claims made during the recent assembly election campaign by the current ruling government in Uttar Pradesh, there seem to be no changes in the law and order situation in the state. 

In a horrific incident, a family hailing from Jewar was attacked and robbed while they were going to Bulandshahr in their car Wednesday night.

The incident happened at the Jewar-Bulandshahr highway in Greater Noida region of Uttar Pradesh.

A family of eight, including four female members, two children accompanied by two men, were traveling to Bulandshahr to get one of the children treated at a hospital when a group of 6-7 heavily armed men attacked them.

The attackers fired at one of the tires of the car forcing the vehicle to stop and then attacked the family.

According to one of the victims, the police was informed about the crime on time, however, they took almost 2 hours to reach the spot. 

The victim's nephew told that the car in which the family was traveling was puncture at around 1.30 am. The driver called up the car's owner and informed him about the tire burst and asked to arrange for a new tire. Soon, after he disconnected the call, they were surrounded by few armed gangsters. 

On the other hand, the car owner got suspicious after the phone call and he immediately called up the police to inform them about the movement. The distance of the police station was only 15 minutes from the crime scene, but according to the victims, the police took almost two hours to reach the spot. 

The victims, who are Jewar residents, were going to Bulandshahr to meet one of their relatives who is hospitalized. Nine people including a child and four women were traveling in the car. 

One of them told media, "We were surrounded by miscreants. They snatched jewellery and Rs 47,500 in cash before tying all the male passengers up with dupattas and taking the women to a field nearby, where they raped them for several hours. When one of them tried to resist, he was shot dead by them."

Last July, a mother and her 13-year-old daughter were waylaid and raped by a group of highway robbers also in Bulandshahr. A Noida-based family of five was headed to Shahjahanpur when miscreants attacked them about 1.30 am on the Ghaziabad-Aligarh highway at Dostpur village, near Bulandshahr.

The incident sparked a political slugfest ahead of the assembly elections and had brought under focus India's largest state's notorious reputation of being unsafe for women. The BJP swept to power two months ago on a promise of tighter law and order.