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Armyman, another prime accused yet to be caught 5 days after CBSE topper gangrape
The Special investigation team said that raids were being conducted to nab the other two main accused – armyman Pankaj and Manish.
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The Haryana Police on Sunday arrested one of the three people accused of raping a 20-year-old Rewari woman, nearly four days after the crime that triggered outrage across the country and prompted support for the woman who was once a CBSE school topper. A special investigation team probing the case also arrested two accomplices, even as they continued to hunt for two other accused.
The three men, among them an armyman, allegedly raped the woman in Haryana’s Mahendragarh on September 12. In her complaint, the woman said two men named Pankaj and Manish drugged her and took her near a well, where they raped her. The woman said she spotted the third accused, Nishu, after regaining consciousness. “Nishu has been arrested,” Nuh superintendent of police Naazneen Bhasin, who is leading the SIT, said on Sunday evening. She said raids were being conducted to arrest the remaining accused.
The SIT also arrested Deen Dayal, the owner of the tubewell room where the woman was allegedly raped, and a medical practitioner named Sanjeev Kumar, who provided treatment to the survivor in collusion with the accused after her condition worsened, the police said.
The arrests came on a day Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar ordered the transfer of Rewari SP Rajesh Duggal following allegations of negligence by the police.
Bhasin said the SIT was conducting raids in Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan to trace the absconding accused.
“With the arrest of the two, the police got some vital clues about the whereabouts of the rest accused and they will be arrested soon. We will produce Deen Dayal and Sanjeev in court on Monday and seek police remand for further investigations,” she said.
Relatives, friends and fellow villagers of the accused are among 100 people the police have questioned as part of their investigations.
The survivor, who has identified the accused, and her parents said earlier that the police were not taking satisfactory action in the matter. The family alleged that more men could be linked to the crime.
The woman’s mother said the family had decided to return a cheque for ₹2 lakh handed over to them on Saturday under the Haryana Victim Compensation Scheme, 2013.
“We do not want this cheque. Is this the price which is being put for honour of my daughter? All we want is justice. We used to hear about long arm of the law, but what are police doing? The accused are still on the run,” she said.
Pankaj, the accused armyman who was on leave when the crime took place, was supposed to re-join his duty on Saturday but he didn’t return, the investigators said. They only gave the first names of the accused.
The case has triggered sharp reactions from opposition parties who have demanded the resignation of CM Khattar on moral grounds, saying the state failed to protect its daughters.
