1 more minor boy apprehended over role in East Delhi gang rape

A special investigation team (SIT) under the supervision of an assistant police commissioner (ACP) was also constituted for the speedy investigation of the crime.

One more minor boy, aged 14, was apprehended on Saturday in connection with the abduction, gang-rape and public humiliation of a 21-year-old woman in east Delhi, taking the total number of apprehended alleged juvenile accused to three so far, police said.

Apart from the three minor boys, eight women and a man were earlier arrested in connection with the case by the Shahdara district police. (Picture for representation only)

A special investigation team (SIT) under the supervision of an assistant police commissioner (ACP) was also constituted for the speedy investigation of the crime, apart from ensuring that the charge sheet in the case is submitted at the earliest, senior police officers privy to the development said on Saturday.

Apart from the three minor boys, eight women and a man were earlier arrested in connection with the case by the Shahdara district police. A total of 11 people were named in the first information report (FIR) that was registered on the statement of the woman and her family members. While the arrested women and man have been sent to jail, the minor boys were produced before a juvenile justice board that sent them to a correction home for boys, the police said.

Deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) R Sathiyasundaram said, “A 14-year-old child in conflict with law, who was involved in the sexual assault of the woman, has been apprehended today (Saturday). Now all people named in the first information report (eight women and three minor boys) have been arrested and apprehended. A man involved in the crime was also arrested on Friday.”

Police said that they also recovered the auto rickshaw used in the woman’s abduction from outside her rented room in Karkardooma village, where she had shifted only one-and-a-half months ago, fearing a backlash from the family members of the 16-year-old boy who allegedly killed himself by jumping in front of a moving train in east Delhi on November 12 last year. His family members blamed the woman for his death after he stalked her, the police said.

Since the teenager’s death, his family members, most of whom are involved in bootlegging in Kasturba Nagar near Vivek Vihar, had been threatening, assaulting and harassing the woman, her 17-year-old sister and their bed-ridden father. Due to the harassment and threats, nobody in the neighbourhood, including close relatives of the woman’s family, was willing to defend them. And because of that, the woman had rented a room with her husband and two-year-old son to ensure they were not harmed by the teenager’s family members.

However, on Wednesday, the police said, the woman was abducted allegedly by the teenager’s family members who then allegedly gang-raped her , chopped her hair off, blackened her face, put a garland of footwear around her neck and paraded her through the lanes of Kasturba Nagar. Several onlookers shot videos of the incident which were later widely circulated on social media, sparking outrage and widespread condemnation.

The woman is currently at a police safe house, where she is undergoing counselling sessions to overcome the shock and trauma.