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Attack on rape survivor in Ranchi: Two shooters of dreaded gang arrested from Lucknow
UPSTF officers claim Ranchi police arrested former Bihar CM party’s spokesman Danish Rizwan as main conspirator on revelations of the two shooters
Two shooters of the dreaded gang of brothers – Salim, Rustam and Sohrab – were arrested from Lucknow on Thursday. The arrests were made in connection with the high-profile attempted murder of a rape survivor, in Ranchi city of Jharkhand, on December 13, 2022.
The survivor, who had accused nearly 50 bureaucrats and politicians of sexual harassment, is battling for life in a Ranchi hospital after suffering two bullet injuries in the attack.
The UP Special Task Force (STF) arrested the two shooters identified as Farhan Khan and Mohd Mudassar from near the Taj Complex under the Para police station limits of the state capital on Thursday afternoon following help sought by Ranchi police in probing the matter.
Sharing details, the STF deputy superintendent of police (DSP) on Friday said the Ranchi police had arrested senior Jharkhand politician Danish Rizwan, who is the spokesman of Hindustani Awam Morcha (HUM) of former Bihar chief minister Jeetan Ram Manjhi, on Thursday itself after the two shooters revealed his name as the main conspirator behind the attack on the rape survivor. He said the rape survivor had also accused Danish Rizwan of sexual harassment following which he hatched the conspiracy to eliminate her.
The incident had taken place in the presence of a police gunner provided to her for security after her name surfaced in so many controversies after her allegations of sexual harassment against several bureaucrats and politicians. The rape survivor was shot at by three motorcycle-borne shooters outside her house, in Ranchi, on December 13, 2022. The FIR of attempt to murder was registered at Argoda police station of Ranchi under IPC sections 307.
“Danish Rizwan approached Farhan, whose sister, Amreen, is married to him (Danish Rizwan) since 2020, to plan the attack on the rape survivor. Farhan roped in Mudassar and one Umar alias Guddu to execute the crime and made several attempts to eliminate the rape survivor before finally targeting her on December 13, 2022,” the DSP adding, “Farhan was driving the motorcycle and Mudassar and Guddu had fired at the survivor”.
He said Farhan and two other shooters had switched off their mobile phones and left them in Lucknow before landing in Ranchi on December 5, to execute the crime. Earlier, the trio had done a recee of the rape survivor’s movements for around a week and planned the attack. He said the trio immediately returned to Lucknow via Varanasi after committing the crime and were living here secretly.
The DSP said Farhan has as many as 10 criminal cases including two sensational murders of former Sambhal MP Shafique Rehman Barq’s grandson, Mohd Zaid Shakeel, in Bazarkhala area, on July 5, 2016, and former Bahujan Samaj Party leader Shyam Narain Pandey alias Pappu Pandey, at a juice corner in crowded Aminabad market on November 29, 2013.
Farhan had committed these two murders at the behest of the three gangster brothers, who are in jail for the past many years, while the brothers’ involvement has not been found in the attack on the rape survivor.
The rape survivor had come into limelight when she had accused the then IPS PS Natarajan of sexual harassment following which he was terminated from the service in 2012 before getting acquitted in the case in 2013.
