Three of the accused in Noida, Sunday. (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav)
TWO MONTHS after a 40-year-old man was murdered while four women members of his family were allegedly gangraped on the Jewar-Bulandshahr highway, four persons were arrested in connection with the case early Sunday morning. Two others, however, fled. The arrests came after an exchange of at least 20 rounds of fire between police and the accused for at least two hours, police said.
“We learnt that the group behind the Jewar incident would be near Sabota underpass with the intention of committing a crime. So, pickets were put up in the area. They opened fire at police the moment their car was intercepted. During questioning, they revealed they are members of Bawaria gang,” said Love Kumar, SSP, Gautam Buddha Nagar. The May 24, 2017, incident had taken after the victims’ car was allegedly hit by an axle, police said.
Following the incident, clothes and vaginal swabs of the victims had been sent for forensic test. On Sunday, police said, “semen stains had been recovered from two sets of clothes of the victims”. “DNA samples of the accused will now be matched with the DNA from the semen,” police added.
Police also said some “important evidence” with regard to the incident have been recovered. “Two phones, stolen during the incident, a rod, and an axle, which was thrown at the car to stop it, a wooden plank with nails, used for puncturing car tyres are among those recovered,” Kumar said.
Three countrymade pistols along with cartridges, jewellery including silver anklets, a gold chain, a set of gold earrings have also been recovered, police said. “During interrogation, the arrested accused told us that on May 24, they had come to Jewar in a Scorpio car and had parked it 800 metres away from where the incident took place,” Kumar said. After the incident, the accused had cross a field to reach their car where two other associates were waiting, police said.
Those arrested are between 27 to 45 years of age and hail from Jhajjhar in Haryana, Najafgarh in Delhi and Alwar in Rajasthan. While police teams are searching for the two accused who escaped Sunday morning, the role of two others in the Jewar incident has come to light.
