GAYA: A home guard aspirant was gang-raped, allegedly by an ambulance driver and a health department technician, while being taken to a hospital after collapsing during a fitness test in Bihar’s Bodh Gaya, police said Saturday. Both accused have been arrested and an SIT is probing the case.The woman was one of around 700 candidates undergoing physical evaluation at Bihar Military Police grounds on July 24. She fainted in the scorching heat and was put in an ambulance bound for Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital about 3.5km away, or a 10-minute drive.Police said the ambulance took an unusually long time to cover the short distance. CCTV footage shows it had deviated from the direct route. At the hospital, the semi-conscious woman told emergency staff she had been raped inside the moving ambulance. “We informed police. Officers responded to the complaint and initiated medical tests and legal procedures,” a hospital official said.

Police probing why no woman was present in ambulancePolice formed an SIT and arrested both accused late Friday. An FSL team collected biological samples. “We’re taking all steps to make the case fool-proof while ensuring her care,” hospital superintendent Dr K K Sinha said.A senior officer said an FIR has been registered on the basis of the woman’s statement. Investigators are examining why no female attendant accompanied the survivor during transit – a lapse that may have enabled the crime.The case has revived memories of a rape at Gaya’s Lady Elgin Hospital (now Rani Durgawati Hospital) decades ago, where a former MP was accused. Public outrage surged online, with demands for justice and better protection for women. “There are cases of small girls aged 4 and even women above 65. Will they get justice? Will girls live fear free in India?” posted Henrietta Decruz on X, urging Supreme Court intervention.The crime adds to a string of brutal killings in Bihar this July, before assembly elections later this year. On July 17, five gunmen shot a murder convict on parole dead inside a Patna hospital. Businessman Gopal Khemka was gunned down outside his Patna home on July 4. Later, BJP Kisan Morcha ex-president Surendra Kewat, trader Waseem Anwar Khan, and lawyer Jitendra Kumar were also murdered.Opposition parties have seized on the crime wave as proof of govt failure in the run-up to polls.