Woman gang-raped in east Delhi: Suspect family’s role in 2019 cop murder under lens
Two more suspects -- a 37-year-old woman and her 40-year-old male relative -- were arrested in connection with the gang rape and public humiliation of the 21-year-old woman.
The Delhi Police on Friday arrested two more suspects -- a 37-year-old woman and her 40-year-old male relative-- in connection with the abduction, gang-rape and public humiliation of a 21-year-old woman in east Delhi. With this, the total number those arrested and apprehended in the case is now 11, including two minor boys, the police said.
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According to police, the 21-year-old woman was abducted allegedly by a family from her neighbourhood, who then allegedly gang-raped in front of the women of the family, chopped her hair off, blackened her face, put a garland of footwear around her neck and paraded her through the lanes of Kasturba Nagar on Wednesday. Several onlookers shot videos of the incident which were later widely circulated on social media, sparking outrage and widespread condemnation. .
“Of the nine arrested suspects, eight are women who were caught between Wednesday evening and Friday. Two minor boys, aged 15 and 17 years, were apprehended on Thursday. In all, 11 people are named in the FIR. Our ongoing investigation may lead to more arrests in the case,” said deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) R Sathiyasundaram.
Police said the woman is still undergoing counselling at a safe house to overcome the trauma and shock that she had faced. She is responding well to the sessions, they said.
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On Friday, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Anil Chaudhary and vice-president Abhishek Dutt along with the party’s Delhi women wing chief, Amrita Dhawan, and supporters visited the woman’s family members and assured them of justice and all possible help.
“The rape of the woman in Kasturba Nagar is a shameful incident. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweets that the matter is related to the central government and police. Making a statement like that is very shameful. Why is Kejriwal, who frequently sits on protests, not staging a protest seeking justice for the family?” Chaudhary Tweeted in Hindi, after meeting the woman’s family.
Police personnel have been deployed outside the home of the victim, but her family is fearful of a backlash from the accused family.
“These police personnel will leave us after some days and we know what the accused persons are capable of. They may attack us once they are out on bail. We also fear being roughed up by their associates. The police will not be around every time to protect us. We will either have to leave this place or be prepared to face the consequences,” the victim’s sister younger said, adding that her relatives are too frightened to even support them.
The woman’s father, an auto-rickshaw driver, is bedridden for the past five years following an accident. Since then, the family has been surviving on the income they got by renting out the three-wheeler and also the earnings of the woman’s husband, a sanitation worker at a hotel in east Delhi.
“We got ₹300 a day by renting out the auto. But that income also stopped around two months ago after the vehicle’s battery died and we didn’t have the ₹2.500 needed to buy a new one. In December, I got a saleswoman job at a local ready-made shop. But 15 days later, my employer fired me as the accused family members were threatening to set his shop on fire,” the sister said.
More cases against suspects likely
Investigators have learnt that some of the arrested accused are associated with a local criminal, Vijay Bhuri, who is accused of killing a Delhi Police sub-inspector from the same neighbourhood in May 2019. Bhuri was arrested in that case and is presently in jail, officers said.
Quoting statements from the woman’s family and residents of the area, police said members of the accused family are into bootlegging and it was they who had instigated Bhuri to allegedly kill sub-inspector Raj Kumar. The family allegedly told Bhuri that Kumar had complained about him and his bootlegging activities to senior officers. Bhuri was also made to believe that Kumar had video evidence against him.
“Bhuri was the main bootlegger in our area. He provided protection to other locals who are into the illegal activity and collected protection money from them. The accused family members were close to him and they instigated him against the sub-inspector, who lived with his family in Kasturba Nagar. After the officer’s murder, these family members used to boast that it was they who had got the policeman killed. But none from the family was arrested or questioned in that case,” said a woman from the neighbourhood, requesting anonymity.
On being asked about the fresh allegations, DCP Sathiyasundaram said, “We will look into these allegations.”