By IANS,
New Delhi: The six accused in the brutal gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman here were arrested following a “painstaking and meticulous operation”, police said Saturday.
“We have arrested all the six accused involved in the Sunday’s rape incident. It was a painstaking and meticulous operation…our team has done a good work,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Chhaya Sharma told media persons here.
Four accused were arrested Tuesday while the other two were taken into custody Friday, she said.
“The fifth accused, who is a 17-and-a-half-years old, was arrested from Anand Vihar in east Delhi after checking at the bus terminal. Before his arrest, several people including his previous employer were questioned,” she said.
“We did not have any photograph, address or any other clues for his identification,” Sharma told reporters.
“On a tip off, we traced one of his previous employers who told us that he used to come to Anand Vihar bus terminal and worked as a helper in small distance buses,” she added.
“He is very good attracting commuters to buses. On the basis of it, he gets jobs frequently,” she said.
On the day of the incident, he had come to take back Rs.8,000 that he had lent to Ram Singh, a co-accused in the gang-rape, she said.
“He was produced before a magistrate Friday night and took his three days’ remand,” she added.
“We questioned at least 25 people with same name as the accused and out of them one was identified by the four of the accused,” Sharma said.
“We have recovered a mobile phone which was robbed by the accused before meeting the rape victim and her friend and an ATM card of the woman from his possession,” she added.
She said minutes before the gang-rape, accused had robbed a man who boarded their bus and a case of robbery was registered at Vasant Vihar police station.
The deputy commissioner of police said that sixth accused Akshay Kumar Singh alias Thakur, 28, was arrested from a village Karma Langha in Aurangabad in Bihar. After the incident, he kept changing his hideout from Noida in Uttar Pradesh to Manesar in Haryana and Alwar in Rajasthan.
“Our teams camped in six states – Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand – for three days to arrest Thakur,” she added.
Police said that the gang-rape victim, who is admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital, gave a statement to a sub-divisional magistrate.
“She was very eager to give the statement and was happy to hear that all the accused were caught,” Sharma said.
The woman was tortured and subjected to brutal gang-rape Dec 16 in a moving private bus which she boarded in south Delhi along with a male friend. Her friend was also beaten up.