Patna: In a swift operation, Patna police have arrested two men accused of raping a Nepalese woman in a private bus on August 4.

The accused, identified as Kartik Rai and Sunil Kumar, were caught in different locations after fleeing the city.

Patna Central SP Diksha said the main accused, Kartik Rai, was attempting to escape to West Bengal when he was apprehended from a train near Barauni.

Police recovered the woman’s ID card, a Nepali SIM card, and other belongings from him. Sunil Kumar was arrested in Aurangabad based on Kartik’s information.

According to police, Kartik, a bus driver from Muzaffarpur, is married with a son and speaks Nepali. Sunil Kumar is also married. Kartik allegedly used his knowledge of the Nepali language to win the victim’s trust.

The FIR states that Kartik regularly transported jawans from BMP-1 to Gandhi Maidan and often asked the victim to wait near Gate No. 5, keeping her phone and money with him.

The victim was seen crying near the gate by shopkeepers and jawans from the Gorkha Regiment.

They informed Gorkha Samaj Samiti president Suraj Thapa, who took her to Kaushal Nagar and helped her contact the police.

The victim told police that she had left her home in Nepal due to pressure from her stepmother and stepbrothers to earn money.

“She arrived in Patna on August 3 via Siliguri, spending the night at Patliputra Junction railway station, where she met Kartik. He promised her a job and took her to Sunil Kumar’s house. She raped the victim inside the bus,” Diksha said.

“After the crime, the accused allegedly cleaned the bus to destroy evidence. Kartik first fled to Kolkata, selling some of the victim’s belongings there, before returning to Muzaffarpur and attempting another trip to Kolkata when police caught him. The bus has been seized.

Police said further investigation is underway to determine if others were involved.

Sunil played a role in providing logistics to the main accused.

(IANS)