Indian girl falls to death after alleged groping on bus

Police said the conductor, cleaner and a passenger harassed and groped the girl and her mother

NEW DELHI: A 16-year-old Indian girl who was allegedly molested on a bus by the conductor and then pushed off while it was moving has died of her injuries, reports said today.

Police said the girl was travelling with her mother on the bus in northern Punjab state on yesterday when the conductor, a cleaner and a passenger harassed and groped them, Press Trust of India reported.

“Later on they were pushed and thrown outside the moving bus by the accused,” the police superintendent of Moga district H. S. Pannu told PTI.

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The news agency said the conductor and cleaner had been arrested and a search was on for the third suspect.

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The incident is the latest in a string of attacks on women to have sparked anger in the country and was reminiscent of the gang rape of a physiotherapy student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012.

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The 23-year-old died from injuries sustained during the attack, triggering a furious debate on sex crimes and weeks of angry street protests across the country.

In the latest incident, television footage showed the heavily-bandaged mother recuperating in hospital while protesters gathered outside demanding action against the bus operators.

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“They kept abusing us. Nobody stopped the bus. They threw me and my daughter out of the bus,” the mother told NDTV news network from her hospital bed.