The Hindu : New Delhi News : Suspected rapists' sketches released

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 13, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Suspected rapists' sketches released

Staff Reporter

`Close to nabbing' fourth accused, claims police

NEW DELHI: Unable to nab any of the four persons who had criminally assaulted a Delhi University student in a moving car on May 8, the Delhi police on Thursday released the sketches of three of the suspects in the hope that it would help in their arrest.

Releasing the sketches, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (South West District), Dependra Pathak, said as all angles and descriptions given by the victim have been taken into account while preparing the sketches, it was hoped that they would result in the arrest of the accused. As for the fourth accused, who had been identified by the victim from the police dossiers, he said his photograph was not being released as the police are "close to nabbing him".

The sketches of the suspects, who are in the age group of 28 to 50, with the eldest being a man who was wearing a kurta pyjama, would be distributed to all the police station in Delhi and in the satellite townships. Moreover, they would also be released through the media so that the general public can help in the arrest of the wanted persons.

Mr Pathak said there were definite leads about the fourth accused and as per the information available, he could be in the police dragnet within "a matter of hours". Already identified as a resident of Uttar Pradesh and a known auto-thief, the police have been trailing him in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi for the last four days as his identity had been "positively established" by the victim.

As for the other three accused, whose sketches have been released, the officer said the police was primarily targeting information on these persons as that could lead to their arrest. As for the public that would provide information in these persons, he said, their identity would be kept secret.

Confident that this move would provide the police with some "vital information", Mr Pathak said the sketches have been meticulously prepared with the help of some "qualitative inputs" received from the victim. In fact, he said even the delay in the release of the sketches was due to the fact that victim was earlier not in the right frame of mind to provide all the necessary details on her tormentors. But now, he said, the victim has recommended some additional changes that she believes would help the police in nabbing the criminals as it provided a more vivid description. As for the progress in the case, Mr Pathak said there was no breakthrough but the police were sure that the culprits would be caught soon.

Already, a dozen different police teams besides the Crime Branch of Delhi police are working on the case and have been conducting raids in different parts of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. But so far, these raids have not yielded any result.

While over a 100 people have been questioned in the case so far, the police have not been able to make much headway in the investigations. Though it had claimed two days ago that three of the accused had been positively identified, the release of the sketches now has put a question mark on that statement.

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