One more man arrested, minor girl detained in East Delhi gang rape case

A 10-member SIT has also arrested two women in a second case of sexual harassment, assault and threatening that was registered on the complaint of victim’s 17-year-old sister

The Delhi Police on Thursday arrested one more man and apprehended a minor girl in connection with the abduction, gang-rape, torture and public humiliation of a 21-year-old woman in east Delhi’s Kasturba Nagar on January 26. With this, the total number of people arrested and apprehended in the case is now 18, and the police are still trying to identify more suspects involved in the crime that, senior police officers believe, was committed in accordance with a well thought out conspiracy.

Altogether, five cases have been registered in connection with the incident. (Picture for representation only)

Apart from the arrests and apprehensions made in the case, the 10-member special investigation team (SIT) that is probing the matter has also arrested two women in a second case of sexual harassment, assault and threatening that was registered on the complaint of the woman’s 17-year-old sister.

The two arrested women are among the 14 persons who have been arrested in the past one week in the main case. Altogether, five cases have been registered in connection with the incident.

“We have arrested 39-year-old Rajeev of Kasturba Nagar in the case filed on the woman’s complaint. A 17-year-old girl has also been apprehended in the same case. The two were part of the conspiracy and also the mob that attacked the woman. Their role emerged during the interrogation of the other arrested persons,” said deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) R Sathiyasundaram.

On January 26, the 21-year-old woman was abducted from outside her rented house in Karkardooma by members of a family living near her parental house in Kasturba Nagar. The abductors bundled her in an auto-rickshaw and brought her to their home, where they locked themselves in with her in a room. Two minor boys and a man allegedly assaulted her with sticks and then gang-raped her in front of their women family members, who then chopped off her hair, blackened her face and paraded her through the lanes outside their house after putting a garland of footwear around her neck.

The alleged accused and some locals filmed the criminal acts on their cellphones. The videos were later circulated on social media, sending shock waves across the capital and eliciting widespread condemnation from politicians, social activists, the media and the civil society. The woman is presently in a safe house of the police and is undergoing counselling for her trauma.