Sleeper bus where Delhi woman was raped operated despite 36 pending challans

The challans, sources said, were issued in areas such as Shakarpur, Chilla Border, Akshardham, Khanna Market, under the Geeta Colony flyover, and Gokhale Market. The total penalty amount is around Rs 3.3 lakh. Source said the last two challans were in the name of the accused driver, Umesh Kumar.

Police said they summoned the bus owner from Bihar’s Gopalganj district; he told them that the two accused men had been working on his bus only for the past few months.

Delhi Police are also trying to ascertain if there were more challans against the bus in Bihar and UP from their respective transport departments.

On Tuesday morning, police said the bus was scheduled to pick up passengers from Nangloi, although its usual route ran from Central Delhi through East Delhi to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Police said the woman, a sex worker, had allegedly boarded the bus from a bus stand at Saraswati Vihar. The vehicle allegedly travelled for around 7 km with the woman before stopping near Nangloi Railway Road, close to Nangloi railway station. Inside the stationary bus, Umesh and his helper, Ramendra, allegedly raped her.

Nangloi railway station is located around 700 metres from the Nangloi Police Station and the office of the DCP (Outer North).

Around 2.30 am, the woman was captured on CCTV cameras getting off the bus. Police received a call from the woman around 4.45 am. The duo were subsequently arrested, and the bus was seized.

As per the FIR, the woman had said her husband was a tuberculosis patient and unemployed. “To support my family, I started working as a sex worker,” she said.

Police said they had recorded her statement before a magistrate and conducted her medical examination, during which she corroborated the sequence of events.