Vadodara: Disguised as bank officials, city police sleuths mingled with the people of a tribal village in Madhya Pradesh to track down a man wanted in a gang rape case for nine years. The accused, who is from the village in MP, was eventually found near Vadodara itself.
Shantu Ninama, a resident of Panchkheriya village in Thandla taluka of Jhabua district in MP, along with his brother Kamlesh and another set of brothers — Kailash and Kantu Bhabhor from Parnalikheda village in Jhabua district — were accused of abducting and gang raping a woman.
On Sept 14, 2016, the four allegedly abducted a young woman and took her to a secluded place near Rajkot and kept her captive. The accused allegedly raped her for three days, after which she was left with Kamlesh who kept her there for another 25 days. He then took her to Panchkheriya. During this period, Kamlesh allegedly raped her repeatedly.
The accused were never tracked down. An investigator said as they were construction workers they kept moving.
As part of the drive by the police to nab fugitives, city police officials started working on the case. From the details in the FIR and the initial investigations, police decided to go to the village of the accused in disguise. Police inspector (PI) R L Prajapati and two constables, Sanjaysinh Udesinh and Patabhai Padmabhai, went to Panchkheriya village disguised as bank officials.
"The team mingled with villagers saying the accused had defaulted on a loan. They met the sarpanch and visited the accused's houses," said Vadodara City police station PI R B Chauhan.
From the village, the team got Shantu's phone number. "This was shared with us and we traced its location. It was found to be a construction site near Hanumanpura village near Vadodara," said Chauhan. A team led by PSI B P Rohit went to the spot and arrested Shantu. He was presented in court on Saturday. The court granted two-day remand for his interrogation.