Noida: Jewar gang-rape accused were arrested a month ago, police did not connect the dots

Taking cognizance of the matter, SSP Love Kumar shifted the SHO of Sector 58 police station, Dileep Singh Bisht, to district police lines late Monday.

Four men, who have been held in connection with the gang-rape of four women and the murder of man on May 25 in Jewar, were arrested by the Sector 58 police on June 13 for plotting a dacoity.

Police arrested the four men after an encounter on Sunday morning in Greater Noida. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

However, the district police, who were at that time “busy” tracing the Jewar accused, could not ascertain the link of the men arrested in the dacoity case with the Jewar incident.

The district police had also enlisted the help of the Uttar Pradesh special task force and police personnel from Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan to nab the culprits.

The FIR (number 0389) said seven men were booked under sections 399 (making preparation to commit dacoity) and 402 (assembling for the purpose of committing dacoity) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 25 of Arms Act, 1959.

The FIR lodged by the Sector 58 police station clearly mentions the name of the seven men and their association with the Bawariya gang.

The accused were produced in the court and remained in custody. They were later let off on bail.

Of the seven, the names of six and their whereabouts were revealed by senior superintendent of police Love Kumar during the media briefing on Sunday regarding the arrest of the accused in the Jewar gang-rape, robbery and murder case.

Love Kumar said, “Six people were intercepted by our team near Sabota village underpass. We arrested four of them while two managed to escape.”

The FIR filed at Sector 58 police station said the seven members were sitting in a park in Block C, Sector 57, on June 13 around 11.20pm when the police received a call from an informant that the seven men were planning to commit a dacoity at a company.

A police team reached the spot and foiled their plans. During checking, the police recovered countrymade pistols and live cartridges from the possession of the seven men.

Love Kumar said, “Those who have been arrested in the gang-rape and murder case on Sunday were earlier jailed in a dacoity planning case registered at Sector 58 police station. We do not deny the fact that they were arrested in June.”

“We have already mentioned that they were jailed. As we had just begun our investigations in the Jewar case and were collecting clues, we could not link those jailed with the Jewar case,” he said.

However, taking cognizance of the matter, Love Kumar shifted the SHO of Sector 58 police station, Dileep Singh Bisht, to district police lines late Monday.

On May 25, eight people in a car were robbed, held hostage and four women, in age group 28 to 52 years, allegedly gang-raped by a gang of six robbers on Jewar-Bulandshahr Road. A relative of theirs was shot dead.