Pari Chowk Bus Rape: Vehicle Had 8 Challans in UP, Staff Unverified
A sleeper bus in which a 16-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped after boarding from Pari Chowk in Greater Noida had accumulated eight challans in Uttar Pradesh during July, investigators revealed. The violations included a Rs 23,000 fine for operating without a valid permit, while the travel operating company had also failed to conduct background verification for its driver and conductor.
Delhi Police have been reconstructing the vehicle's exact path on the night of August 4 using CCTV footage from Pari Chowk, Kashmere Gate, and Timarpur, along with mobile phone location data. Footage captured the vehicle entering the Hanuman Mandir flyover, which has assisted investigators in mapping stops and timings.
According to police, the victim, who had left her home in Mainpuri, boarded the bus around 9 pm at Pari Chowk under the impression that it would take her to Noida Sector 63, where her cousin resided. The bus was not operating regular passenger services that night; it had been taken to a workshop in Surajpur in Greater Noida for mechanical repairs and was subsequently being moved toward Kashmere Gate for painting work.
During the journey toward Delhi, driver Kuldeep (39) and conductor Sandeep (26), both residents of Kanpur, allegedly raped the girl inside the moving vehicle and threatened her life when she resisted. Investigators noted that company-fitted curtains around the sleeper berths helped conceal the crime, while the bus's internal CCTV cameras were non-operational due to ongoing renovation work.
The victim was later abandoned near Kashmere Gate, after which she reached a local police station in an auto-rickshaw to lodge a complaint. A medical examination confirmed rape, and police quickly tracked down and arrested both accused from a parking area in Timarpur, seizing the vehicle.
Records show that five of the bus's eight July challans, totaling Rs 54,000 in fines, were issued in Mathura primarily for speeding, while the permit violation was issued in Hamirpur on July 23. The bus was registered in Firozabad on April 28. Forensics teams recovered hair strands from inside the bus, and seat covers along with the victim's clothes have been sent for DNA testing.
