Rahul Gandhi targets Centre, Uttar Pradesh over alleged gang-rape in moving bus
Congress leader questions police accountability after a 16-year-old was allegedly assaulted during a 47-km journey from Greater Noida to Delhi
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday criticised the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government over the alleged gang-rape of a minor in a moving bus travelling from Greater Noida to Delhi, accusing the authorities of failing to ensure women’s safety across the National Capital Region.
The leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha questioned whether responsibility would be fixed on the Delhi Police, which comes under the Union Home Ministry, or the Uttar Pradesh Police.
Rahul Gandhi said it was alarming that a 16-year-old girl was allegedly assaulted during a 47-km journey in a sleeper bus without either the Delhi or Noida police detecting anything suspicious.
“This bus crossed the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, Delhi’s Ring Road, the border — all of it — without being stopped even once at a single checkpoint. Curtains were drawn over the bus seats so no one could see what was happening inside. And the perpetrators had no fear of the administration whatsoever,” he said in a Hindi post on X.
“Those curtains weren’t just drawn on that one bus — it is the result of curtains being drawn year after year by the government over the administration’s failures, leaving women unable even to take a safe journey in the country’s capital,” the former Congress president said.
He asked how many more women and girls would have to suffer before the Centre and state governments addressed deficiencies in the system.
“Will there be any accountability for the Delhi Police under Amit Shah, or the UP Police under Adityanath? Not a chance — this crime, too, will just have a curtain drawn over it,” Rahul Gandhi said.
According to police, the 16-year-old girl boarded the sleeper bus in Greater Noida on the rainy night of 4 August and was allegedly gang-raped by its driver and conductor while the vehicle was moving. She was later abandoned near Kashmere Gate in Old Delhi, more than 40 km away.
Both accused have been arrested, police said.
The Class 11 student, who is from Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh, had left home after being scolded by her mother and travelled towards Noida Sector 63, where her cousin lives. She mistakenly got off at Pari Chowk in Greater Noida at around 9 pm amid heavy rain.
As she looked for transport to cover the remaining distance to her cousin’s home, a bus stopped near her. The conductor allegedly told her that the vehicle was heading towards Sector 63 and offered to drop her there.
Investigators said the bus was not operating a regular passenger service that night. It had been sent to a workshop in Surajpur for repairs after developing a technical problem.
The driver and conductor collected the vehicle from the workshop at around 5 pm and began travelling at approximately 9 pm. They allegedly picked up the girl at Pari Chowk on the pretext of offering her a lift before proceeding towards Kashmere Gate, where she was abandoned.
The girl subsequently took an autorickshaw to a police station and reported the incident.
Deputy commissioner of police (North) Niharika Bhatt said Delhi Police registered an FIR without raising any jurisdictional issue and immediately began searching for the accused.
With PTI inputs