Bulandshahr: A week after the gangrape of a woman and her 14-year-old daughter on a highway in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district, the police nabbed the main accused and two of his accomplices.
A gang of six men had brutally gangraped a woman and her teenage daughter at gunpoint on last week after dragging them out of a car in Bulandshahr on NH-91 when they were travelling with their family from Noida to Shahjahanpur.
The prime suspect has been identified as Saleem Bawaria. He has been taken into custody along with his accomplice Zuber and another one, police said. “Remaining 3 accused in Bulandshr case arrested after week long chase across east India,” Uttar Pradesh's Director General of Police said on Twitter.
Sources close to police revealed that Saleem and his gang often travelled by buses and trains to avoid police check posts and patrols. “As a modus operandi, they keep iron rods, rinch cutters and other similar material to stop moving vehicles and hold them captive on gunpoint before performing robberies and other crime,” according to a report in the Hindustan Times.
Uttar Pradesh Police had earlier arrested--Naresh (25), Bablu (22) and Rais (28)--and detained a dozen others after launching a massive hunt for the bandits suspected to be behind the crime.
The incident had sent shock waves across the country, rocked Parliament and led to widespread criticism of the law-and-order situation in Uttar Pradesh.
Apparently rattled by the outcry, senior minister in the Samajwadi Party government Azam Khan had remarked that he suspected a "political conspiracy" behind the incident, evoking widespread condemnation.
Accusing the Samajwadi Party government of "protecting and appeasing" criminals ahead of the Assembly polls slated next year, BJP had asked Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to seek a CBI probe in the case if he has any "shame" left.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said he would order a CBI probe if the family demanded.
On Monday, Allahabad High Court had sought to know from the Uttar Pradesh government why the investigation in Bulandshahr gangrape case be not handed over to the CBI.
Directing the state government to file its reply by August 10, a division bench of Chief Justice D B Bhosale and Justice Yashwant Varma also sought a report on status of probe in the case, including the "criminal antecedents, social background and political affiliations, if any", of the accused persons.
