Dehradun: Shockwaves spread through the Karnaprayag area of Chamoli district on Wednesday evening after reports came of a 19-year-old college student having been gang-raped by three ragpickers of the town.

The survivor, who is a second year BA student, had gone for a walk with her male friend near a forest area in Karnaprayag when the incident occured.

Sources said that finding the victim and her friend alone in a deserted area, the accused people, who work as sanitation workers, started threatening the woman’s friend, forcing him to leave.

“They took her inside the forest area near a garbage dumping zone on the Badrinath highway and then sexually assaulted her,” said sub-inspector Ajay Rawat, spokesperson of Chamoli police.

He added that the accused persons, identified as Rohit, 22, Manoj, 21, and Chhotu, 22, have been arrested. “They had been residing in a slum near Chandighat in Haridwar and were employed as cleaning workers in Karnaprayag,” Rawat said.

All the three accused have been booked under sections 376-d (gang rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. While Rohit originally hails from Phagwara in Punjab, Manoj is from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh and Chhotu is a native of Bhagalpur district in Bihar.

