CBI gets custody of three Bulandshahr suspects

GHAZIABAD/BULANDSHAHR: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took three of the six accused arrested in the Bulandshahr gang rape into custody for questioning on Saturday.

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On Friday, the CBI took over the probe into the twin gang rapes on the Delhi-Kanpur highway from the Uttar Pradesh Police on the Allahabad High Court’s orders.

The investigating agency applied for the remand at a Bulandshahr court the same day.

“The three accused will be in CBI custody till August 22 and will be produced before the designated fast track court the next day,” a CBI spokesperson said.

The agency is expected to get details about the incident from the three. The UP Police arrested six men — Raees, Jabar Singh, Shavez, Saleem Bawariya, Zubair and Sajid. The seventh, Fati, has not been traced.

The CBI registered a case under Sections 395 (punishment for dacoity), 397 (robbery), 376D (unlawful sexual contact) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code, and 4 of the Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act.

Earlier, the UP police took into custody two suspects, Jabar Singh and Shavez, who were arrested on July 31 with Raees.

Later, three more men, including prime accused Bawariya, were arrested on August 8 night from Meerut. But police did not seek their custody.

“We find no justifiable cause or plausible explanation for the police not taking the arrested accused into police custody or even praying for extension of police custody. This clearly indicates that the investigation has not been fair and proper (sic),” the high court bench said in its August 12 order, before handing over investigation to CBI.

A family of six, including two women and a girl, were travelling from Noida to Shahjahanpur on July 29 night on NH-91, when armed robbers waylaid them near Dostpur village in Bulandshahr.

The robbers allegedly tied up the men and gang raped one woman and her 13-year-old daughter.

The victims also alleged that initially the police did not pay attention to their complaints.