Ten alleged rapists from Noida in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, played a cricket match in Bulandshahr on January 5. On their return journey, six of them riding three motorbikes chased a Maruti car-borne MBA girl student in her twenties and her male classmate near Greater India Place Mall in Noida and brought them to a halt after overtaking them. The victim is a resident of Lajpat Nagar while her classmate resides in Hauz Khas in Delhi.

The six of them, then, attacked the boy with cricket bats and stumps and one of the accused, Sanjay Yadav, drove the car to a secluded place near their village Garhi Chowkhandi in Noida after overpowering the two. There is a second version of this story which says that the two were parked near Garhi Chwukandi when they were attacked.

These six men then called four more men from their village. Then, the ten of them took turns and raped the girl for two hours from 6.30pm. All the alleged rapists were in their late teens and early twenties. After committing this heinous crime, they decamped with the mobile phones of the victims. That was their way of celebrating a win. A later report said that the girl was gang raped at gun point while her classmate was beaten up by the accused.

I am sorry, I am casting my story this way. Frankly, I couldn’t have cast it any other way. I am a great fan of cricket and I still consider it a gentleman’s game notwithstanding the indiscretions the game has suffered in recent years. It would be a disgrace to the game of cricket to call these alleged rapists—cricketers.

The MBA student and her friend managed to drive to the police station and lodged a complaint with the Gautam Buddha Nagar Police Station at 1.30am. The victim was found to have been raped upon medical examination.

Five of the alleged rapists were rounded up by the Noida police within 12 hours. Their cricket gear gave them away. All five of them…Pushpendra Yadav, Shrikant Yadav, SanjayYadavv, Sudhir Yadav and Gautam Yadav belonged to Garhi Chawkhandi in Noida. All of them are undergraduates and sons of farmers. Jagbir Singh and Anil Yadav were arrested later.

The case is being taken up by the National Commission for Women. The NCW team comprising Neeva Konwar and Wansuk Syiem visited the site of the crime and met senior officials investigating the case to assess the progress of the case. The NCW chairperson, Girija Vyas, says that Noida Police is yet to record the victim’s statement under section 164 CrPC. NCW has also written to the UP chief minister, Mayawati, requesting her to look into the case.

Incidentally, Noida has gained a reputation for major cases such as the Nithari case and Arushi case turning blind and hitting a dead end.

Commenting on the incident Raghuvir Yadav, former sarpanch of the village is reported to have said: “She was just raped, it is not that big a deal.” If the gang rape was inhuman, the comment by the former sarpanch is even more insensitive. One wonders how many rapists there must be in the village and how many rapes must have taken place in the area for the villagers take a gang rape so casually.

Samajwadi Party General Secretary, Amar Singh and his supporters claim that “the Government is trying to cover up the case by implicating innocent people. If they are guilty bring them to justice, but if they are innocent free them.” Singh and his supporters were arrested for violating prohibitory orders in the area.

The victim identified the accused and one of them even confessed to the crime. Three country made pistols and two knives have reportedly been recovered from the accused besides cricket bats and stumps.

Such demonstrations by political parties, when the case is still under investigation and pending before the courts of law, do not help the ends of justice. We must let the law take its course. Let us give law a chance and prevent this case from hitting a dead end too.