Birthday outing turned into nightmare: Kalkaji gangrape survivor recounts horror

The 17-year-old girl who was gangraped in a park in Delhi’s Kalkaji has said that the three accused, posing as policemen, brandished a gun and knives to threaten her and her friend before they took turns to sexually assault her.

In her statement to the police, accessed by India Today, the girl said September 21, the day of the incident, was her birthday. She had gone to Kalkaji Temple with her friend and planned to visit the ISKCON temple later that evening.

According to her statement, she left home around 5 pm after informing her elder sister and reached the temple with her friend at about 5.45 pm.

After offering prayers, the two bought chips and a bottle of water near Kalkaji Metro Station before entering Astha Kunj Park through Gate No. 7.

“I also wanted to visit the ISKCON temple. I told my friend that we should first sit in the park for some time, eat chips and then go for darshan,” she said.

The teenager said they had just sat on a bench near the swings and opened the packet of chips when three men, whom she estimated to be between 30 and 35 years old, approached them from behind.

“They immediately caught hold of my friend and slapped him. When we asked who they were, they said, 'We are policemen. Why have you come here at this time? Entry is not allowed here'," she said.

The survivor said the three men took away her and her friend’s mobile phones before separating them. Frightened, she pleaded with the accused to speak to her parents instead.

“I was very scared. I told them, ‘Sir, ask whatever you want to ask here. Talk to my mother,’” she said.

According to her statement, one of the men then called out to another accused, identified as Asif, and asked him to take out a gun.

“One of them said, ‘Asif bhai, take out the gun.’ Asif was wearing a purple-coloured shirt and was the healthiest among the three. He took out a black-coloured gun from the pocket of his jeans and put it back in his pocket. Then both of them took out knives,” she said.

The survivor said the men then took her to a secluded, darker part of the park, where she said they took turns raping her while threatening her with a knife.

“I was crying. I was in pain,” she said.

After the assault, the three men returned some of her clothes, brought her friend back to her and handed their mobile phones back to them.

“They said, ‘Leave this place quickly, otherwise we will kill you. And don’t tell anyone anything,’” she told police.

The survivor said she and her friend immediately left the park. Once outside, she told him about the gangrape, following which he called the police.

The three accused — Asif, Hemant and his younger brother Mukesh — were arrested on Tuesday.

While Hemant, a lawyer, and Mukesh, a final-year B.Sc. Mathematics student, were picked up from their house, Asif was taken into custody following an exchange of fire with police near the back gate of Lady Shri Ram College for Women, around 50 metres from the campus.

He sustained a gunshot wound to his leg.

The three men knew each other as they lived and worked in the vicinity of the park and frequently met there.