Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday condemned both the Union government and the Uttar Pradesh administration after a 16‑year‑old girl was allegedly gang‑raped on a moving sleeper bus that travelled from Greater Noida to Delhi. He said the incident highlighted a lack of accountability for the Delhi police under Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Uttar Pradesh police under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, adding that the crime would be “drawn behind a curtain” like previous cases.
According to police, the girl, a Class 11 student from Mainpuri, left home on a rainy night after being scolded by her mother and boarded a bus for Noida Sector 63, where her cousin lives. She mistakenly alighted at Pari Chowk in Greater Noida around 9 p.m. and, standing in heavy rain, was approached by a sleeper bus that stopped nearby. The conductor told her the vehicle was headed to Sector 63 and would drop her off there; trusting his words, she boarded. The bus, which had been taken to a workshop in Surajpur for repairs and was not on a regular passenger route, was later driven by the conductor and driver who allegedly gang‑raped her en route to Kashmere Gate. She was abandoned near Kashmere Gate and managed to reach a police station by auto‑rickshaw.
Delhi police registered an FIR and launched a search for the accused, while Uttar Pradesh police arrested the conductor and driver, confirming that the bus was moving at the time of the assault. DCP (North) Niharika Bhatt said the investigation proceeded without jurisdictional issues.
Gandhi questioned why safety protocols, such as checkpoint inspections, have not been enforced despite past tragedies. He urged the central and state governments to address systemic failures that, in his view, leave women unable to travel safely in the national capital.
