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NEW DELHI: A 19-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped by three men in Haryana’s Sonipat district after they offered her a lift home and instead drove her to an isolated location, police told news agency PTI. One of the accused has been arrested, while efforts are underway to trace the remaining two.According to police, the incident took place on January 16. The woman was waiting at ITI Chowk in Sonipat for an auto-rickshaw when a youth from her village, travelling in a car with two others, stopped and offered her a ride, PTI reported.Police said the accused later stopped at a liquor outlet, purchased alcohol and consumed it inside the vehicle. The car was then driven to a secluded spot, where the men allegedly forced the woman to drink alcohol before raping her.Bahalgarh station house officer Mahesh Kumar said the victim lodged a complaint the same day, following which an FIR was registered under Sections 70(1) (gang rape) and 3(5) (act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. One accused has been arrested, while the others, aged between 20 and 25, remain absconding, he said. The case comes weeks after another disturbing incident in Haryana involving a woman who accepted a late-night lift. In early January, a 25-year-old woman was allegedly raped by two men inside a van after being picked up on the Gurgaon–Faridabad Road. She was held captive for nearly three hours, assaulted inside the moving vehicle and later thrown out while it was still in motion, sustaining serious facial injuries that required multiple stitches.In that case, the woman’s family later claimed the vehicle was posing as an ambulance, an allegation police said was under investigation. The accused were detained and an FIR registered under gang rape and other sections of the BNS.
