Hyderabad police on Saturday arrested two juveniles in the sensational gang rape case, taking the total number to three. Now, the police teams are on the lookout for the remaining two accused.
On Friday, the police made the first arrest in the May 28 gang rape of the 17-year-old girl.
Of the two juveniles, the police confirmed that one of them is the son of a VIP but declined to reveal the latter’s name as this would lead to identification of the accused thus violating the rules.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Joel Davis said two CCLs (Child in Conflict with Law) were arrested by Jubilee Hills police.
He said they were being produced before the Juvenile Court for their safe custody.
“So far out of five accused persons identified, three are juveniles while one accused and two juveniles have been apprehended and efforts are on to arrest the remaining accused who are absconding,” he said.
Though traced on Friday, one of the minors could not be apprehended as police clarified that rules didn’t permit them to apprehend him during night hours.
The DCP had told reporters on Friday night that five accused including two juveniles aged 16-17 have been identified.
One of the major accused Saduddin Malik (18) was arrested on Friday while the police teams were searching for Omair Khan (18).
Since the accused were not known to the victim and the crime was reported three days later, the accused escaped to other places.
Various police teams were searching for the accused in other places in Telangana and in neighbouring states.
The DCP exuded confidence that police would arrest all the accused within 48 hours.
The accused sexually assaulted the victim in an Innova vehicle on the evening of May 28 after promising to drop her home from a pub in Jubilee Hills where the victim and the accused attended a party.
The police official refused to reveal the location where the offence took place saying this would reveal the identity of the victim. He, however, said the accused left in a car from the pub and stopped at a pastry shop enroute. There they left the car and boarded another vehicle.
While the car has been seized by the police, there was no word about the Innova vehicle. The DCP evaded replies about the SUV’s owner.
The police investigation revealed that after committing the crime, the accused dropped the victim back near the pub. She called her father, who picked her up but suspected something untoward happened to her as there were bruises on her neck.
The victim’s father approached police on May 31 saying his daughter went to day-time non-alcoholic party and suspected that molestation might have taken place there. He told police that the girl is in a state of shock and is not able to speak.
“Based on the complaint, police registered a case under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 9 and 10 of Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and started investigation. As per the Standard Operating Procedure, the next day after counseling the victim child, police sent her to Bharosa Centre where lady officials counselled confidence. It was only the next day she revealed to lady officials what happened to her and gave her statement,” the DCP said
Based on the victim’s statement, police altered the case to section 376 D of IPC and section 5 and 6 of POCSO Act and since there were bruises on the victim, Section 323 of IPC was also added.
On the direction of the City Police Commissioner, various teams were constituted which started collecting details.
“The victim was not in a position to reveal the identity of the accused as they were not known to her earlier. Based on CCTV footage and other technical evidence and after it was corroborated with the victim’s statement, we identified five accused, two of them major and three aged 16-17,” he said.
There have been allegations by leaders of Opposition BJP that grandson of state home minister and son of an MLA of MIM were also involved.
The police officer termed the allegations about the home minister’s grandson as 100 per cent baseless. He also said neither the victim’s statement nor other evidence gathered so far show that MLA’s son was involved.
The police officer, however, said the investigations were on and once the victim is in a position to give a detailed statement and if something comes out during investigation about involvement of others, action will be taken accordingly.
BJP chief spokesperson K Krishna Sagar Rao alleged that there were five accused, including sons of two prominent local politicians. “The Hyderabad police have not yet arrested any accused despite the criminal complaint lodged by the parents of the victim, and the alleged criminals’ car being impounded,” Rao said, reported news agency.