STF probing role of nomadic gangs in Jewar robbery, ‘rape’

Police sources said such gangs are known to rape women after robbing them

The team of the Uttar Pradesh special task force (STF) probing the Jewar robbery, murder and alleged gang-rape case, has focused its search on Bawariya and Mewati gangs.

The car in which the eight family members were travelling to Bulandshahr from Jewar when they were robbed, four of them gang-raped and one man shot dead by armed assailants. (Virendra Singh Gosain/HT File)

According to police sources, apart from the modus operandi, the assailants’ description and language, as given by the victims, hints at the involvement of gangs from these regions.

Officials said such gangs operate in Moradabad region of UP and in neighbouring Haryana. Teams of civil police and STF have scanned a number of local suspects and are now looking at nomadic gangs who have been involved in robbery incidents during which they have murdered or raped their victims, they added.

“Two such gang members were investigated, but they were not found to be involved in the Jewar incident. We have come to know that three of the gang members involved in the Jewar case were lean and thin while two had a protruding belly. There have been previous instances of robberies in the area. Our teams are working on leads that hint at the involvement of outsiders and nomadic gangs,” said an official from UP-STF.

The investigators are also working on leads based on the language the robbers used during the incident.

One of the men who was robbed said the robbers spoke in a language similar to the one spoken locally, but their accent was entirely different. The victims, however, couldn’t understand the words they used to call each other, the man added.

“When we were taken hostage, I was surrounded by two people. I can identify them. Their way of dressing was completely different and they had a stubble,” said the victim.

He added that they realised the robbers were not locals when they shot dead the 38-year-old man in their group who tried to resist.

“They were also wearing some sort of an ornament around their necks. Some of them were tall and lean,” he added.

Officials have also taken four people on police remand who were nabbed at Farrukhabad in connection with a similar robbery and rape incident at a brick kiln under Rabupura police station area.

That incident took place on the intervening night of November 1 and 2, adjacent to the Yamuna Expressway.

“The four accused are on a two-day remand. They belong to a nomadic tribe and keep wandering in Haryana, UP, Rajasthan and Delhi. They don’t have a fixed place to stay. Wherever they stop, they carry out similar robberies and are also known to rape women,” said Rajveer Singh Chauhan, station officer (SHO), Rabupura.

“We are questioning them about the Rabupura case. Their identification parade before the victims will be done later under a different legal process,” Chauhan added.