A perfect crime spot & a horrific tale

THANAGAZI: On Friday afternoon (April 26), under a scorching sun, a young married couple left their house at 3 pm to go to Narayanpur for shopping. At 3:10 pm, less than 2-km away from the house they were stopped by five men who dragged them into ravines and forcibly stripped them. The husband was brutally beaten up while the 20-year-woman was gang-raped.
TOI visited the crime spot which was half-a-kilometre downhill walk from the main highway in a deserted stretch and found that all shouts for help would be in vain from there and that’s what had happened to the survivors.

The dirt track from where the couple was dragged down, turns into the ravine full of sand. Thorn bushes which were growing rampantly there bore deep into the husband’s body while the five men were raping his wife and torturing him. Just a kilometre ahead of this is the abandoned building where the accused spent their days allegedly drinking and causing nuisance. They also knew the area well.
As far as the naked eye can see, the area is full of similar ravines on either side of the highway. With a heavy heart and a strong face, the survivor’s father walked down the same path on which his daughter was dragged to her horrific fate.
Looking at the spot, he said, “I did not even know this place existed. We never come here. Once you go deeper into the ravines, no one will see you. No one even goes into the ravines because it just sand and wilderness. Even I am coming here for the first time despite the fact that I was born here.”
While TOI team was there, only a few vehicles passed leaving one in no doubt that the accused had found the spot beforehand to carry out the crime. “After being here, I am sure that all the five culprits had the perfect crime spot and were just looking for the victims,” added the father.
The rugged terrain around the crime scene is marked by only couple of houses which also blend into the scenery. Less than a half a kilometre ahead towards Narayanpur, lies an abandoned building which was being earlier used by the contractor, when the highway was getting constructed few years back. This is where the accused made their den and were frequently seen by the locals. The family claimed that following the crime, the accused and their acquaintances were in the same building till May 2 but no one arrested them. The building is marked with graffiti for selling liquor. The locals who were present near the building when TOI visited, were, however, reluctant to talk about the incident and one of them even asked the father of the survivor to get Mukesh Gujjar, who was arrested for uploading the assault video, off the hook since “he did not rape anyone but only shared the video”. According to villagers, this stretch of road has become increasingly unsafe with minor robberies as well as eve teasing cases but repeated requests to the police for barricading and other safety measures have fallen on deaf ears.