The 24-year-old driver Prem Raj Rai has been arrested under section 376 of IPC.
AB Wire
A minor girl from Kolkata was allegedly raped by a taxi driver in North Sikkim on Tuesday.
Sikkim police arrested the 24-year-old driver Prem Raj Rai under section 376 of IPC, Hindustan Times Reported.
The three girls, who just cleared their class 12 examinations, reached Gangtok for a vacation on May 13 along with the parents of one of them. The parents of the girl who was assaulted are no more, the sources said. They checked into a hotel run by a relative of one of the girls.
On Sunday afternoon they hired Rai’s taxi and visited tourist locations in and around Gangtok like Rumtek Monastery and Tashi View Point. He then suggested the girls to visit some waterfalls in North Sikkim and the girls agreed.
As per the statements of the girls, the driver offered them water and chips. Only the girl who was sitting in the front seat ate the stuff and she started feeling drowsy. The driver pushed the two girls in the back seat out of the cab and sped away with the girl to a wooden terrain.
Later, the driver and the girl were found in the car in the woods beside the North Sikkim Highway near Phodong, around 7.30pm.
“The medical report has confirmed rape,” said Tom Tshering Lepcha, the station house officer at Phodong outpost, after the driver and the girl were taken to a hospital.
The girl had injury marks on her face and neck and was in a state of shock, locals said.
The incident has sent shockwaves in Sikkim, a peaceful state known as a safe tourism destination.