DU student alleges drugging and gang-rape in Lucknow

DU girl allegedly assaulted by 3 (Image used for representational purpose only)

LUCKNOW: A 19-year-old Delhi University (DU) first-year student, who is a Jaunpur native, has alleged that she was drugged and gang-raped by three youths repeatedly over four days in a rented room in Lucknow’s Sushant Golf City police station area. Two of the accused are known to the survivor and belong to her village. The girl has alleged that she was persuaded by one of the perpetrators to get off a train in Lucknow while travelling from Jaunpur to Delhi. The girl initially lodged a report at the Anand Vihar railway station police under ‘zero FIR’, and the case got transferred to Lucknow police on May 23. Lucknow police has formed four teams and lodged the case under the charges of gang rape, wrongful confinement, hurt by poison and criminal intimidation against two named accused and one unidentified person.

Narrating the sequence of events, the survivor in her FIR said she travelled to her native village in Jaunpur district during holidays and left for Delhi on May 15. She alleged that after boarding the train from Jafarabad railway station that night, she contacted an old acquaintance, Shivam Yadav, 20, by message during the journey. She alleged that Shivam met her at Charbagh railway station in Lucknow along with another man whom she identified as Sunny Yadav, 19. She got off the train after they persuaded her to break the journey in Lucknow. She further said that the two men took her by cab to a room near a private hospital in Sushant Golf City police station area. According to the complaint, she was given cold coffee, after which she began feeling drowsy. She alleged that she was then sexually assaulted and raped multiple times during the night of May 15-16. She further alleged that on May 16 she was assaulted again by the second man, and that the assaults continued over the next two days, including by a third unidentified man who was brought to the room. She alleged she was threatened with death if she resisted or spoke about the incident.

The complainant said she was later taken back to Charbagh railway station, where a general ticket was purchased, and she was left on the platform on May 18. She stated that she boarded a train and travelled to Delhi. During the journey, she informed her family and contacted railway helpline 139, following which the Railway Protection Force, or RPF, was alerted, she said. On arrival at Anand Vihar railway station police (AVRS) on May 19, she was met by railway staff and taken to Hedgewar Hospital in Delhi for medical examination, according to the complaint and police documentation.

Police records referenced in the case file state that the medical legal case (MLC) recorded an alleged history of sexual assault by three men in Lucknow on May 16 and May 17, multiple times, and noted that the complainant reported being intoxicated with an unknown substance in Lucknow. The records also state that counselling support was arranged through a Sakhi One Stop Centre counsellor. According to details of Delhi police, medical samples were collected, sealed and taken into possession as evidence. A seizure videography was conducted but could not be uploaded due to signal issues and was saved on a mobile device.

Based on the complaint and counselling report, Railway Police at PS-AVRS, Delhi, registered Zero FIR No. 85/2026 under Sections 70(1) (gang rape), 123 (causing hurt by poison), 127(3) (wrongful confinement) and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023 against Shivam, Sunny and an unidentified person. Delhi Police stated that the alleged crime scene falls under the jurisdiction of Sushant Golf City police station in Lucknow, and that the papers were to be forwarded to the police station concerned for further investigation.

The complainant told police she can identify the two named men and the third unidentified suspect if produced before her, and sought strict legal action, the case record states. Additional deputy commissioner of police (DCP), South Zone, Vasanth Kumar, told The Times of India that an FIR under the same sections as the zero FIR was registered afresh in the Sushant Golf City police station. “Our preliminary probe has revealed that Shivam and Sunny both belong to the same village in Jaunpur area as that of the survivor girl. Five teams have been formed to arrest them and their family members are being questioned to know their possible hideouts,” said Kumar. He also added that Sunny worked as a delivery boy with an e-commerce company, while Shivam worked at a coffee shop and was acquainted with the survivor for the past four years. (The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per the Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault.)