The Hindu : Front Page : Police nab two in Mayapuri gang-rape case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 20, 2006

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Front Page

Police nab two in Mayapuri gang-rape case

Staff Reporter

`Ghastly crime committed by suspected burglars during joyride after drinks'

NEW DELHI: Two men have been arrested by the Delhi police in connection with the sensational gang-rape of a 23-year-old hearing and speech-impaired woman in a moving car on Mayapuri Road in the Capital in the early hours of July 20 last year. The victim was later dumped by the accused at Keshav Puram in North-West Delhi.

The police breakthrough in the much talked about case came quite by chance. Earlier this month the Hari Nagar police happened to arrest a man, later identified as 30-year-old Ram Kumar, on suspicion of his involvement in cases of burglary. Though Ram claimed that he had no criminal past, the police discovered that he was involved in at least two burglary cases at Shalimar Bagh and Kirti Nagar. When the police grilled him, he purportedly broke down and allegedly confessed to his involvement in the Mayapuri gang-rape case as well.

Ram, who worked as a taxi driver, allegedly revealed that on July 19 he and two of his friends, Anil and Niranjan Mandal, had met in Palika Bhawan and consumed liquor until late at night. When they were in an inebriated state, they went for a joyride in Anil's car. They first headed towards Dhaula Kuan and from there to Mayapuri. There they noticed two women sitting along Mayapuri Road relieving themselves.

Two of the men in the car got off, overpowered one of the women and dragged her inside the vehicle. Even as the second woman raised an alarm, the accused sped away. They then took turns assaulting the woman in the moving car and dumped her near Prembari Pul at Keshav Puram. After the police intensified their probe into the case, Ram fled to Nepal where his first wife lives. He stayed there till November.

At his instance the police claim to have arrested Niranjan, who had been working as a quack at Bawana. Niranjan purportedly disclosed to the police that he and his father earlier lived in Nepal. In 1989 he came to West Bengal. He then shifted to Delhi and has since been living here with his brother-in-law who was in the Army.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police Neeraj Thakur, statements of both the accused have been corroborated, "confirming that they were involved" in the case. "We have launched a hunt for the third accused, Anil, originally from Nepal, who is Ram's old accomplice and has been involved in burglary cases with him. Anil knows the whereabouts of the vehicle that was used in the crime," said Mr. Thakur on Thursday.

The crime had come hot on the heels of another sensational case in which a girl from the North-East was abducted and raped in a moving car by at least two men at Dhaula Kuan.

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