When police arrested four people in connection with the Jewar incident on Sunday, they joined the dots and realised they had the same accused in their custody for two weeks.
Twenty days after four women were allegedly gangraped and one of their family members killed on the Jewar-Bulandshahr highway, the Gautam Buddh Nagar police had arrested seven of the accused in a separate case. Police did not know at the time that they are connected to the May 24 incident in Jewar. According to senior police officers, an “improper interrogation” ensured they were released on bail after two weeks.
When police arrested four people in connection with the Jewar incident on Sunday, they joined the dots and realised they had the same accused in their custody for two weeks. Police sources said, “Around 11.20 pm on June 13, the Sector 58 police station received a tip-off that a group of armed miscreants would assemble at C-block park in Sector 57 with the intention of committing dacoity… They were arrested under IPC sections 399 and 402 as well as sections of the Arms Act.”
“They were sent to judicial custody for 14 days and then released on bail. By this time, police were attempting to track the Jewar accused using surveillance and inputs from the field. That is when we realised that the accused had already been in our grasp,” said a senior police officer. Sunday’s arrests came after an exchange of at least 20 rounds of fire between police and the accused for at least two hours.
Two of the accused managed to flee and police teams are looking for them. Those arrested are between 27-45 years of age and hail from Jhajjhar in Haryana, Najafgarh in Delhi and Alwar in Rajasthan.
Gautam Buddh Nagar SSP Love Kumar said, “We are investigating the matter. If there is any evidence of improper policing by anyone, then strict action will be taken against them and a magisterial enquiry will be initiated.” Late Monday evening, the SSP’s office, in an official statement, said, “The SHO of Sector 58 police station has been transferred to police lines and the Sector 20 SHO has been given the charge.”
