Police arrested three Bathinda men for allegedly raping two girls near Manali

Police arrested three Bathinda residents for allegedly raping two girls in Vashisht, a tourist spot, a place famous for its hot water springs near old Manali over two weeks ago.

All three arrested youths, Amandeep, 28, Ishu, 23, and Akshay, 23, were produced in a local court in Shimla on Wednesday and have been sent to judicial custody, said superintendent of police Shalini Agnihotri.

As per the complaint by a woman, the two girls went ‘missing’ from their school, were found on June 15 and the police had recovered the two girls from Vashisht on June



17.

In her complaint, she said her daughter was studying at a senior secondary school in Himachal Pradesh and had gone missing from school with her friend, who was also a student of Class 12. On June 21, the parents of the girls approached the police — alleging rape by five men, three men from Bathinda and two local men from Banjar, who worked in hotels.

At this, the police converted the kidnapping case they had earlier registered into a rape case.

Shalini Agnihotri said, “The two local men are absconding. We are on a lookout and both will soon be apprehended.”