Delhi Woman Lures 12-Year-Old Girl; Tea Seller, 3 Minors Rape Her

A 12-year-old girl was allegedly gangraped by a man and three boys after a woman lured her to a secluded spot in Delhi's Sadar Bazaar, police said on Sunday. All five accused, including the three minors, have been detained, they added.

Police said the woman was a customer at the man's tea stall in Old Delhi's Sadar Bazaar. The three boys aged 12, 14 and 15 years were workers at the stall.

On January 1, the tea stall owner asked the woman, who worked as a waste picker in the area, to arrange for a girl to "celebrate the New Year." The accused had built a temporary shelter out of plastic tarpaulin inside a sealed building in the area to spend the night. Police suspect that the man might have offered the woman some money in exchange for bringing the girl to them.

The next day, the woman met the 12-year-old girl, another ragpicker, and allegedly told her to collect garbage from the roof of a building in Khurshid Market. When the girl reached the area, the four accused were waiting for her. They took turns to rape her inside the temporary structure. Afterwards, they threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the incident.

The girl returned to her home in North West Delhi and kept quiet for two days. On January 5,  when she returned to Sadar Bazaar to pick garbage, she confided in her cousin who lives in the area. The cousin informed her parents and the family approached the police.

A case of gangrape was registered and all the accused were detained, hours after the survivor lodged her complaint, police said.

The tea shop owner is a resident of Chhattisgarh while the three boys who worked at his shop hail from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.