Fifth arrest in rape probe: Man who drove away held

GURUGRAM: The rape of a woman in Sector 57 late night on Sunday — the fourth such crime in the district in 10 days, and hours after the deputy commissioner had promised stricter vigil — appears to have rattled the police and they appear a more proactive force.
Having arrested all four accused in the case by Monday morning, within hours of receiving the complaint, by Tuesday they had extracted a confession from those arrested that there was a fifth person in their group, and arrested him as well.

Late night on Sunday, a group of drunken youths in two cars had pounced upon a family who had stopped their car on the Samaspur-Tigra road behind Business Park Tower in Sector 57.

One of the accused dragged a 22-year-old woman out of their car and raped her on the roadside, while his accomplices thrashed her husband and relatives.

Based on the complaint of the survivor's husband, an FIR was registered at Sector 56 police station in the wee hours of Monday, against unidentified accused, under sections 323 (causing hurt), 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation), 34 (common intention) of IPC.

By Monday, cops had arrested the four accused mentioned in the complaint, by tracking down one of the cars — a grey Maruti Alto — whose number the survivor's husband had noted down.

The four accused have been identified as Sanjeet (22), Dharmender (25), Deshbeer (23) and Pawan (26), all residents of Johlaka village near Sohna, police said.

Overnight, those arrested confessed to their crime, including prime accused Sanjeet, who allegedly admitted he had sexually assaulted the woman. They also mentioned a fifth accomplice — Pawan Sharma (40) of Tighra village — who was driving his Toyota Etios. On Tuesday, Sharma was arrested and his car seized.

Sharma has already confessed he was with the four youths arrested earlier, and that they were returning from a roadside dive bar in two cars. Pawan and Sanjeet, who were in the Etios, had spotted the a car parked on the roadside, stopped and picked a fight with the woman's husband, brother-in-law and the latter's son. He added he had assisted them till the time they were thrashing the men. But when Sanjeet dragged the woman to the haystacks, he protested and fled in his car, he told police.

On Tuesday, all five accused were produced in a city court, which sent four of them to judicial custody, while Sanjeet was handed over to police on one-day remand.

He was taken to Civil Hospital for medical examination, and police reserved his DNA sample to corroborate the crime. "The main accused is Sanjeet, who confessed to having raped the woman. We produced all five in a city court and took Sanjeet on one-day remand, while the other four were sent to judicial custody," said inspector Arvind Kumar, station house officer, Sector 56 police station.