A 24-year-old MBA student was kidnapped and allegedly raped by a group of youngsters, five of whom were arrested by the police on Tuesday on a complaint filed by the girl's friend.
The girl was returning home with her friend in their car after shopping at Great India Palace mall in Sector 39 of Noida when the incident took place at around 5 pm on Monday in Sector 121, the police said.
Five youngsters -- identified as Husain, Srikant, Sanjay, Sudhir and Gautam -- were arrested on Tuesday morning in connection with the case while the police is on a hunt to nab five others who are believed to be involved in the crime.
All of them were picked up from Ramgarhi Choukandi village, where they reside, within 12 hours of committing the crime, Superintendent of Police (Noida City) Ashok Tripati told reporters.
The accused were in the age group of 18 to 25 years and some were under-graduate students.
In an FIR lodged with Noida police early on Tuesday, the friend of the second-year MBA student, residing in south Delhi's Lajpat Nagar, claimed the motorcycle-borne youths waylaid them near a drainage.
"Amit Talwar, the friend, said while they had travelled about 900 metres from the mall, some motorcyclists overtook them and waylaid them. They forcibly entered the car and one of them started driving," Tripati said, adding that the youngsters were carrying cricket bats and wickets.
After driving for some time, the official said, the youngsters reached an isolated place where they allegedly raped the girl.
They left the girl and her friend there after taking away their mobile phones, he said.
However, Tripati claimed that the accused had said during questioning hat the victim and her friend were not driving the car but were talking to each other when they were intercepted near the drainage."There has been some contradictions in the statement given by the complainant and that of the accused," Tripati said, adding that they will investigate the matter further.
Initial medical examination of the girl has revealed no internal injuries, Tripati said.
"We are waiting for the final pathological report. We will not spare anyone in this case as the crime is unpardonable," he said.
Asked how police zeroed in on the culprits, the senior police official said the youngsters were coming back after playing cricket and were carrying a cricket kit with them.
"We investigated which local teams are playing cricket and zeroed in on the suspects," Tripati said, adding that two motorcycles, cricket bats, wickets, helmets and three mobile phones were recovered from the accused.
He said the arrested youth have no past criminal records.
The victim has been admitted to a hospital and her condition is stated to be stable.
A case has been registered and further investigations are on.
In New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Vikram Singh said the police will ensure that all culprits are booked.
"We have arrested five persons in this regard... We will ensure that all culprits are booked," Singh told reporters on the sidelines of the chief ministers conference on internal security.
