Fake gangrape case| Electronic evidence, CCTV footage saved us: Initial suspects

The police in a suo motu FIR have booked the woman as well as a local reporter from Delhi who was allegedly paid ₹5,000 to sensationalise the case.

The turn of events on October 18 came as a shocker for five men and their families who stay in Kabir Nagar locality in Delhi. A 38-year-year old woman alleged that she was kidnapped in a black Scorpio car and gangraped by these five men on the night of October 16 when she was returning from the house of her brother in Ghaziabad.

The woman accused of creating a fake kidnapping and rape case being produced in the Ghaziabad Police court. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

Swati Maliwal, the chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), tweeted the graphic description of the alleged sexual assault and even went on to compare it with the December 2012 gangrape case in Delhi.

The 2012 case provoked national outrage and prompted the government to pass tougher laws to check crimes against women.

Maliwal even alleged that the woman was brutalised with an “iron rod” which the doctors later took out with great difficulty.

A GTB Hospital spokesperson told HT on Wednesday that a small “foreign object” was found in the woman, while Ghaziabad SSP Muniraj G said the “foreign object” was a five to six centiimetre long piece of tongue cleaner.

Maliwal could not be reached for her response when contacted on Friday and Saturday as well.

The woman’s brother in Ghaziabad filed a complaint and based on it, the Ghaziabad police registered an FIR for gangrape and illegal confinement against the five initial suspects at Nandgram police station.

Her brother had named the five men — Sharukh, Javed, Aurangzeb, Deenu and Dhola — with whom the woman allegedly had a land dispute estimated at ₹53 lakh at Kabir Nagar in Delhi.

“Javed and I had left our house for work on October 18 morning and I left him at Chajju Nagar near Babarpur in Delhi to fetch some raw materials. We have a small business of interior and furnishing work. Back home, teams of the Ghaziabad police started arriving one by one and they initially picked up my other brother Shahrukh, my mother, my elder brother and my married sister. The news also reached us and we soon started to visualise what all may happen to us in police custody. I did not go home that day and kept hiding at a house in the locality. Javed also fled somewhere and we could not trace him,” said Mohammad Imtiaz, younger brother of the two initial suspects – Shahrukh and Javed.

Imtiaz said that barring Shahrukh, the others in the family were let off by the Ghaziabad police.

On October 20, the Ghaziabad police came out with an official response and held a press briefing at police lines.

They termed the case as “fabricated” and arrested three other suspects — Azad Tehsin, a resident of Welcome in Delhi; Gaurav Sharan, a resident of Shivam Garden in Badalpur (Gautam Budh Nagar); and Mohammad Afzal, a resident of Kaila Bhatta in Ghaziabad — with forensic and electronic evidences before making the arrests.

The police have maintained that Azad along with the woman allegedly hatched a conspiracy to nail the five suspects who were related to the disputed property.

The police in a suo motu FIR have booked the woman as well as a local reporter from Delhi who was allegedly paid ₹5,000 to sensationalise the case.

“About two years ago, Javed took a ₹2 lakh loan from Azad. His brother-in-law Shafeeq introduced Javed to Azad. Javed returned some money and some is pending. In between, Azad wanted to purchase our house (the property) and took my mother to a court in Delhi. She is illiterate. He got her to sign some documents and based on those papers, he got the property transferred in his name and later in the name of some other man and finally in the name of the 38-year-old woman,” Imtiaz said.

Imtiaz said that Azad and his brother-in-law Shafeeq also occupied the ground floor of the house where they installed 10 sewing machines for their work.

“After couple of months later, we realised that the electricity bill of our house was not getting generated and we got suspicious. With the help of pressure from locals, we asked them to vacate the house in May earlier this year. This led to the dispute. Two days later, Javed went missing for three days. He was picked up by the Ghaziabad police in connection with some car theft case. When we came to know about it and reached Ghaziabad, my brother was let off. We found that it was Azad who gave his name to the police in order to implicate him,” Imtiaz added further.

“On the night of October 16, Javed was at Aurangzeb’s house. Aurangzeb is our friend and also gave us work contracts. The CCTV footage of Javed’s presence at Aurangzeb’s house has also been taken by the police. We have never met the 38-year-old woman. We have no relations in Ghaziabad and we generally don’t go there but Meerut. The entire family is in a state of shock but we are slowly coming to realise that my brothers were not involved,” Imtiaz added further.

The black Scorpio mentioned in the woman’s brother’s complaint in which he alleged that his sister was kidnapped, belongs to Deenu, who was among the five initial suspects.

“The Scorpio car was in a private parking lot near my house for the entire day and night of October 16 (when the woman alleged the kidnapping). The CCTV footage of it is taken by the police. The next day on October 17, I was at my home till 5pm and later I went to Taimur Nagar and then went to Jama Masjid where I had food. All my travel locations and required CCTV footage is with the police,” Deenu said, who works as a property dealer.

“I purchased the property from Javed’s parents and later I found that it was disputed with Azad. Later, Azad got the property documents prepared in his name somehow. This dispute has been going on for more than one year. The valuation of the property is about ₹53 lakh and I gave ₹8 lakh to Javed’s family as an initial amount. Earlier this year, Azad occupied the property forcibly and later he had to vacate it. This led to the enmity between the two,” Deenu added.

Deenu said that the CCTV footage saved him.

Haji Zareef, a local resident, said that the families and locals are all thankful to the Ghaziabad police for their thorough investigation in the case.

“Had the police not done their duty properly, these five men would have landed in jail. They have cooperated with the police and have given possible evidence of their innocence. We hope their names get cleared soon,” Zareef said.

The police officials said that after the incident came to light on the morning of October 16, they formed several teams.

“We tracked the mobile locations and other details of the suspects and found that they did not come to Ghaziabad during the period of the incident. This raised questions. After a detailed investigation, the case took a different turn. The five initial suspects have no involvement in accordance with the current investigation and their names will be cleared through a legal procedure. We have evidence which is corroborated with the statements given by the three suspects (friends of the woman), who were arrested later,” said Nipun Agarwal, superintendent of police (city 1).