An autorickshaw driver was arrested in Ujjain for the rape of a minor girl, whose video clip of being shooed away by people while pleading for help in a bleeding, half-naked state has shocked the country. The accused, Bharat Soni was brought to the crime scene for a forensic investigation, he attempted to flee from police custody and injured himself by falling on the road.
Ujjain police formed a 28-member SIT to look into the issue after a video of the girl screaming for assistance went viral. Five auto drivers were detained and questioned, according to IG Santosh Kumar Singh, based on CCTV footage from the previous 72 hours. Soni was the SIT's main target, and he confessed to the crime.
He was arrested and led cops to the survivor’s bloodstained clothes. IG Singh told media that because the survivor was unable to speak, authorities heavily relied on technical evidence, including video from CCTV cameras in various locations, to establish the sequence of events.
“The accused found the minor girl alone and offered her a lift. He took her to an isolated spot in Jeevankhedi village and raped her. He left her there and fled,” said Singh.
Another auto driver later dropped the survivor near a residential colony, where she went door to door seeking help for two and a half hours before she fell unconscious opposite an ashram. A priest found her and called the police.
“We found bloodstains on the back seat of an autorickshaw and its owner, Rakesh Malviya, was detained for questioning. Later, it was established that he had found the survivor in an injured state and had given her a lift,” said IG Singh. Malviya, however, did not inform the police.