Woman gang-raped on UP bus, child dies in assault

Bareilly: A day after a woman was gang-raped in a UP bus and her 14-day-old boy flung to death by the two assailants, it emerged on Wednesday that the survivor's 3-year-old dau- ghter is the sole witness to the gruesome attack. The kid was also the first person to give an account of the attack by the driver and conductor in Bareilly to police.The duo also forced alcohol down the 28-year-old woman's throat before the gangrape, pushing her into an inebriated condition for over 3 hours after the attack in Sheeshgarh village on Monday night. With the woman unable to recount the incident to policemen when they first approached her for a statement, the 3-year-old, who had hid herself in a corner of the bus, narrated the entire episode first to the cops and then to her father."The incident took place when fellow passengers had left the bus. We have booked the two accused under Sections 376 D (gangrape) and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC and sent them to jail. We will also book them under provisions of the Gangster Act," Superintendent of Police (rural areas) Yamuna Prasad said on Wednesady.The woman, a resident of Rampur, was returning home on Monday night after attending a family function at Khapuriya, a nearby village. As she alighted at her destination, the conductor, who belongs to a neighbouring village, promised to drop her at her place. However, as soon as the last passenger got down, they started assaulting her. When she resisted, the duo forced liquor into her mouth. In the melee, they also flung her 14-day-old boy. The infant died on the spot.According to cops, the woman's 3-year-old daughter hid herself behind a seat and watched the gory crime. As the duo carried her unconscious mother outside the vehicle and put her on the road next to the bus stand, the girl quietly slipped out of the bus and ran to a place where the accused couldn't see her. It was only in the early hours of Tuesday when the woman's husband accompanied by locals came looking for her that they found the girl by the side of her unconscious mother and dead infant.Madhu Garg, state head of All India Democratic Women's Association, said, "The incident is ghastlier than Delhi's Nirbhaya case, given the fact that the accused killed the victim's 14-day-old infant. Even then, murder charges have not been pressed against the two. We will hold protests if the two are not booked for the murder of the infant."