GURGAON: A 42-year-old woman was allegedly gangraped at a deserted roadside dhaba in Bahadurgarh early on Monday by a group of men who had followed the bus she was travelling in. Four of the five accused were arrested, while one remains at large.Jhajjar police commissioner Rajshree Singh said the woman, a resident of UP, had come to Delhi’s neighbouring town with her uncle to look for a job. In her statement to the police, the woman said they alighted from the bus at Pandit Shree Ram Sharma metro station of Delhi Metro’s Green Line around 2am on Jan 12. Her cousin had come to pick them up. That is when they noticed the five men following them.

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“By around 2.30 am, the men separated the woman from her uncle and cousin, intimidated them and took her to a deserted dhaba on Delhi-Rohtak Road, where they sexually assaulted her,” a senior police officer said. The dhaba is around 100 metres from the metro station.After the family approached police, multiple teams were formed to trace the suspects. The woman’s statement was recorded and an FIR was registered at City police station in Bahadurgarh. Her medical examination was conducted and her statement was recorded before a magistrate.Police said the woman initially told officers that the accused had stolen some belongings and insisted that nothing else had happened. However, investigators later recovered the digital video recorder (DVR) of a CCTV camera from the dhaba, which captured the sexual assault. “She agreed to give a detailed statement, and her uncle subsequently filed a complaint,” the commissioner said.According to investigators, shortly before the assault, the accused purchased liquor from a nearby shop, paying Rs 100 in cash while transferring the remaining Rs 30 digitally through UPI. The transaction proved to be a critical lead. “Tracing the Paytm account allowed us to identify the suspects and reconstruct the sequence of events,” a police officer involved in the probe said.Local Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) teams also analysed CCTV footage from the dhaba and surrounding areas to track the suspects’ movements. Digital payment records, call detail records, social media analysis and inputs from local intelligence were used to narrow down the accused.Within eight hours of the crime, four men, all residents of Bahadurgarh who are originally from Bihar and were living in rented accommodation in the Chhotu Ramnagar area, were arrested. Police, however, did not share their names, with a test identification parade pending. The arrested men were produced before a Bahadurgarh court on Wednesday and remanded in police custody for two days. “Efforts are on to identify and apprehend the fifth accused,” an officer said.Commissioner Singh praised the police teams for the swift arrests and said the department was committed to ensuring women’s safety. “Strict action will be taken against those involved in crimes against women, and no offender will be spared,” she said.(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)