UP cops given 24 hours to nab rapists of Bulandshahr

BULANDSHAHR/MEERUT: The UP police have identified three suspects involved in robbing a Noida family and raping two of its members — a 13-year-old girl and her mother

BULANDSHAHR/MEERUT: The UP police have identified three suspects involved in robbing a Noida family and raping two of its members — a 13-year-old girl and her mother — in Bulandshahr.

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A 300-strong task force was set up on Sunday to arrest their accomplices within the 24-hour deadline issued by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, whose government suspended seven policemen in the wake of an outcry over yet another brutal crime against women.

Five to six armed men waylaid the family’s car on the Delhi-Kanpur highway near Dostpur village at 1.15am Saturday, said an FIR registered later that day. The gang dragged the victims to nearby fields, tied up the three male members and an elderly woman and raped the teen and her 35-year-old mother. The assault lasted over two hours before the attackers fled with cash and valuables, it said.

One of the family members managed to free himself by gnawing at the ropes with his teeth, police sources said. He called the police from his mobile phone, which the attackers had left behind with the car. It was 4.15am by the time the victims were rescued, rain-soaked and in shock.

Uttar Pradesh DGP Javeed Ahmad, who visited the crime scene, said the police had raided nearby areas and detained 15 people, including the three suspects who are in their 20s. He said the “other members will also be arrested soon”.

“The girl and her mother picked out the three suspects from 200 photographs we pulled out of our database of local criminals,” said Meerut DIG Laxmi Singh.

Both officers indicated the involvement of local nomadic criminals. “Their modus operandi and the fact they fearlessly committed such a crime 40-50 metres from the highway indicates some of them must be locals,” Singh said.

“Two of the attackers apparently discouraged their partners from raping the women,” he said, adding that the victims were hit with hammers when they protested the sexual assault.

He said two iron axles, which the gang had thrown at the car to stop it, had been recovered.

“Arrest all those involved and the state government will pursue the case strongly in court,” CM Yadav was quoted as saying by his spokesperson. His Twitter handle said he would meet the family soon. The remarks came as opposition parties attacked his Samajwadi Party government, saying there was ‘jungle raj’ in the state — which goes to polls early next year.

“The SP government and its head must tell the people if they can return the modesty of women in such a painful and heinous crime,” BSP chief Mayawati said.

Union minister Mahesh Sharma of the BJP said, “When will this end? It shows the state government has collapsed on every front. It cannot save the honour of a daughter.”

A police officer said the attackers disappeared into the darkness on foot and hid the car under blades of jowar (sorghum) so it couldn’t be seen by police patrol vans. The victims spotted one patrol car at around 3am but could do nothing about it, he said.

The 300-strong police team — drawn from Ghaziabad, Noida, Hapur and Meerut — is experienced in dealing with nomadic criminals, the sources said.

In their statement, the victims — who were driving to Shahjahanpur for a relative’s tehravi (ritual for the dead) when they were attacked — said the criminals were dressed in half-sleeved T-shirts and jeans and trousers, which they had folded to avoid the muck in the fields.

A case of rape, illegal confinement, robbery and dacoity, and under the provisions of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act, has been registered.