Gangrape inside varsity campus, 2 held

Later, the woman and her children were thrown out of two cars near her residence in Veerabhadranagar, under Girinagar police station area. Her neighbours, who happened to note down the car numbers, later informed the police.

The police on Monday arrested Hemesh and Gangadhar of Mitra Tours and Travels in Hanumanthnagar. The other accused — Kumar, Alwin, Arun and Siddalingaiah — belonging to the same firm, are absconding.

Neighbours said the woman’s husband is serving a life sentence for murder at at the Parappana Agrahara prison, and she had gone to visit him on the day of the incident.

She had waved at the white Maruti van to stop, thinking that it belonged to some travel company and the driver wouldn’t mind making some quick bucks by dropping passengers on the way. The men inside the car also offered to give her a lift for Rs 4.

Once inside the car, she realised that all three men were drunk. They made her sit in the middle row along with her children. The woman raised an alarm only after they drove past her home in Girinagar.

‘‘I thought they will stop the vehicle a little further down from the bus stop. But they didn’t. When I asked them to stop, they began laughing. I was confused, I cried for help, but it was already 9 pm and the roads were lonely,’’ she told The Indian Express, lying on the hospital bed.

The woman said the three first tried to rape her in the moving car, but when her children began to cry, they stopped at a secluded spot near the Jnanabharati campus. ‘‘They pushed me out of the car and beat me with their slippers…I could not even breathe,’’ she said.

The woman said she was repeatedly raped till 2 am, after which the three men called up their friends to join them.

Next, she was pulled inside the van and driven to a spot near a club, where three more men joined the trio. They allegedly raped her till around 3.30 in the morning.

Later, she was dumped on the main road near Veerabhadranagar along with her children. Some of the residents took down the registration number of the cars but refused to help the woman.

‘‘I didn’t even get water to drink. I begged for some clothes to cover myself but got none. I later crawled to my house and informed my neighbours, who called the police,’’ she said.