NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Friday declined to entertain a petition by a woman alleging gangrape by four persons in 2008, including Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu, questioning the delay in filing the complaint. However, a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna granted liberty to the woman to approach the high court concerned for redressal of her grievances.

The apex court also granted her liberty to approach appropriate authority for police protection.

During the brief hearing in which senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Krishnan Venugopal appeared for the woman, the bench noted that though the alleged incident happened in 2008, there was no complaint filed till 2015.

The woman submitted that she was approaching the apex court as the police and the trial court declined to entertain pleas to register a criminal complaint against the alleged perpetrators.

In the petition, the woman claimed said she was 15 years old at the time of the incident and was working in a public call office in Arunachal Pradesh and was allegedly lured by a man on the pretext of providing a government job.

She further claimed that she was given soft drinks laced with drugs and after she fell unconscious, she was gangraped.

She also claimed she came to know about the identity of these persons after some years.