Muzaffarnagar:
Two Delhi girls were molested in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district by three policemen and four others, including the associates of a ruling Bahujan Samaj Party legislator, police said Thursday. Five accused have been arrested.
The victims, along with two male friends, were returning from Dehradun to their homes in east Delhi when the incident took place at a highway petrol pump around midnight Tuesday, police said.
The girls were forcibly taken to the rear of the petrol pump and molested. Their male friends were beaten up and confined to their vehicle, police said.
Station House Officer of Civil Lines police station Sanjay Vajpayee said: "We have registered a criminal case against seven people - Dilshad Rana, Junaid, Irshad and Javed and three policemen, who were their associates at the time of committing the crime."
Five accused were arrested Thursday. The two policemen taken into custody are Zarar Ahmad and Narendra, both security guards of legislator Shahnawaz Rana, he said.
The third policeman booked for the incident is Shamshad, who is on the run. He is the security guard of the legislator's wife Intkhab Rana who is a member of district panchayat.
The case was registered on the complaint of Gaurav Jain, one of the male friends of the girls.
"The petrol pump staff could not muster courage to protect the girls. They later told us that the accused were very influential people," said Jain, a resident of Naveen Nagar in Delhi's Shahdara neighbourhood.
He said a police patrol jeep was parked near the petrol pump but nobody came to their help even after they cried for help.